In the last few weeks ahead of a key referendum on South Sudan separation, some 55,000 displaced people have returned from the North to their homeland in the South, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

"With the Sudan referendum just weeks away, thousands of southerners living in the north are heading back to southern Sudan," said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"Their movement by road, rail, barge and plane is both organized by the South Sudan government and spontaneous.
"In the last few weeks, nearly 55,000 southern Sudanese have returned to the southern states, mainly to Unity State," the spokesman added.

Southerners are due to vote in a referendum on January 9 on whether to remain united with the north or break away and from their own country.
The vote is a key plank of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the north and south that put an end to more than two decades of civil war.

Edwards said that many more southerners displaced in the north are waiting to head home.
"In the sprawling camps for displaced people around Khartoum, thousands of southerners are packing their belongings and waiting to leave," he said.