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The ongoing DDR operation in Sudan has marked yet another milestone, with the 24 March start up of the Reintegration component of the programme in Ed Damazin, Blue Nile State.

Reintegration is the last and most crucial phase of the multi-million dollar scheme in which more than 180,000 combatants of the North-South War are being disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated into civilian life.

It is the phase in which ex-combatants are provided the technical and material assistance they need to socially and economically reintegrate into civil society.

This week, a total of 14 participants, including four women, were received by the Individual Counseling and Referral Service (ICRS) at the office of the Joint (North/South) DDR Commission in Ed Damazin. All were provided with the standard kit on income generation support.

The 14 were the first DDR beneficiaries to be processed when adult demobilisation was launched in Ed Damazin on 10 February last. Of the 5,000 ex-combatants on the rolls for demobilisation in Blue Nile State this year, a total 1,300 have been demobilised since the operation began six weeks ago.

Preparations are well advanced for a similar exercise to start in the Southern Kordofan localities of Julud and Kadugli in early April 2009.