More than seven thousand confirmed Ethiopian refugees have thus far crossed the border into Sudan due the Ethiopian civil war in Tigray in the north of the country – some reports carry much higher numbers.
Refugees were settled in an area not too close to the border.
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Aid agencies have already warned of the looming catastrophe from the war if calls for de-escalation remain unheeded by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
“The refugee emergency in the northeast (of) Africa presents some challenges that affect (the) UNHCR’s effectiveness to respond to the situation because the number of refugees can snowball, but the assistance from Sudanese people shows solidarity with the Ethiopian people affected by the unexpected war” said a humanitarian worker in Addis Ababa.
Yesterday a delegation led by the Sudanese Interior Minister Lieutenant General Idris al-Traifi paid a visit to El-Gadarif to assess the situation and explore how the Sudanese Government can further help the refugees.
Some of the Ethiopian refugees remember their days as refugees in Sudan during the 1980s famine.
The Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa has thus far rejected all calls for a de-escalation of military operations.
This article first appeared in the © Puntland Post, 2020 and is republished with permission.
