United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Conflict in the Ethiopian Tigray region forces thousands to flee to Sudan
The UN refugee agency said on the 11th that the agency is working with the Sudanese authorities to provide life-saving assistance to more than 7,000 Ethiopian refugees who fled the border in the past two days.
After a week of fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and local government troops in the northern Tigray state, men, women, children and men fled their homes and arrived in Sudan seeking safe asylum.
Refugees arriving in Sudan are temporarily placed in two temporary shelters near the border entry points. The UNHCR and local authorities are jointly screening and registering refugees.
The UN Refugee Agency expects more refugees to arrive in neighboring countries, so it is strengthening emergency relief preparations in the region, cooperating with governments and partners, and taking measures to deal with more displacement as the situation develops.
Salami, the head of the UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for East Africa and the Horn of Africa, urged the governments of Ethiopia’s neighboring countries to open their borders to those who had been forced to leave their homes. At the same time, they asked the Ethiopian authorities to take measures to allow the agency to continue to provide services to refugees and internally displaced persons in Tigray. Security assistance.
UNHCR stated that thousands of refugees arrived at the Sudanese border within 24 hours, and this number could rise sharply as the conflict seems to escalate. This will require the mobilization of substantial resources to meet the needs of asylum seekers.
