This paper outlines the dramatic return to Sudan of 150,000 men, women and children from Itang Refugee Camp in Ethiopia in June 1991. These people were pawns in Sudan's civil war, manipulated by governments, military forces and the media – a state of affairs that the international community failed to deal with effectively. At the time of the return to Sudan, ICRC and the United Nations were working to assist the returnees in two different areas and each had a different access agreement and thus a different impact on the survival of the returnees. The paper focuses on the role of political awareness and negotiation in the protection of refugees and in the organisation of relief in the context of a civil war.