Exciting reunion after 20 years

A \'Lost Boy\', who was displaced by Sudan\'s North-South civil war, returned home to Payinjiar County in Unity State on Thursday, 18 November 2010, after not seeing his family for twenty years.

The Lost Boys of Sudan are more than 27,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were displaced during the civil war.One of the many stories being recounted and lived every day in South Sudan; the reunion of \'Lost Boy\' with their family is a sprinkle of hope, ending years of painful separation. Joseph Gatyuong Khan Gatluak, the \'Lost Boy\' told Sudan Votes on Thursday that he was very excited to meet both his parents after so long. In late 1990, seven years into the conflict, Gatyuong left his home village of Duong in Nyal Payam to study outside Sudan.

The 21-year conflict between the Sudanese People\'s Liberation Army (SPLA) and various northern governments ended with a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). One of the stipulations of the CPA is the referendum on self-determination to be held in January 2011, which holds the potential for either creating a new state in the South, or decide for a unified larger Sudan.

Gatyuong said he has spent almost half of his life without his parents’ guidance, which was why he and others like him are described as \'Lost Boy\'. He left the Kakumu refugee camp in 2001 for the United States of America where he stayed for eight years. When he reached Nyal Payam around a hundred relatives greeted him with traditional songs and prayers to celebrate his safe return.

His mother Nyakuok Rundial Top told Sudan Votes, that she has missed her son and he had always been in her thoughts since he left. Gatyuong broke into tears at the first sight of his mother. A smile drawn by the loving embrace of her son finally found, overshadowed all the prints time has left on her face. A family reunion, to become hopefully one of many other stories to be soon told in Sudan.