ZCZC
BFF-37
ETHIOPIA-CONFLICT-SUDAN-REFUGEE
Nearly 25,000 Ethiopians flee to Sudan: state media
KHARTOUM, Nov 15, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Around 25,000 Ethiopians fleeing
conflict in the Tigray region have crossed into neighbouring Sudan, state
news agency SUNA reported, as the UN said it was working to find them
shelter.
“The number of Ethiopian refugees who have arrived in Gadaref and Kassala
states since Saturday has reached 24,944,” the agency said.
Sudan’s commissioner for refugees Abdullah Suleiman toured the border
region on Saturday with UN refugee agency assistant representative in Sudan
Jan Hansmann to discuss the influx.
Hansmann, quoted by SUNA, said the priority of the UNHCR was to provide
the refugees with shelter, food and water and then to transfer them to
regions far from the border “for security reasons”. He said the UN refugee
agency was working to establish new camps in Sudan for the Ethiopians.
Sudan has already said it would shelter thousands of Ethiopians fleeing
the conflict at the Um Raquba camp, which in the 1980s hosted thousands of
Ethiopian fleeing famine.
Over the past week, exhausted refugees have streamed across the border
into Sudan after walking for two-days through searing heat, many of them
barefoot.
Some arrived on scooters and other cycled, while others boarded makeshift
boats to cross a river into Sudan to flee intense fighting at home.
Suleiman called on the international community to pitch in with aid for
the refugees.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced November 4 he had ordered
military operations in Tigray in a dramatic escalation of a long-running feud
with the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
UNHCR said it expected the number of refugees to grow if the conflict in
neighbouring Ethiopia worsens.
The leader of the Tigray region on Sunday claimed responsibility for
rocket strikes on the airport of neighbouring Eritrea’s capital, sparking
fears that the conflict could widen.
A Sudanese government source said up to 200,000 Ethiopians could seek
shelter in Sudan.
BSS/AFP/ARS/18 45 hrs