Preventing broke out on 18 January within the city of Tongo – reportedly between unidentified armed teams and federal forces – and the close by camp internet hosting 10,300 refugees was looted and burned.
“All humanitarian employees needed to evacuate, and entry to the world – together with the 2 camps, Tongo and Gure-Shembola – stays not possible”, UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told journalists at an everyday press briefing in Geneva.
Exhausted and displaced
Since final December, the scenario has been very tense within the Benishangul Gumuz area, which hosts greater than 70,000 Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees and over 500,000 internally displaced Ethiopians.
The 20,000 refugees who fled, made their manner over lengthy distances to 3 websites nearer to the regional capital, Assosa, arriving exhausted and in want of help.
“UNHCR is working with the Ethiopian Authorities’s Refugee and Returnees Service and companions to supply essentially the most pressing help to displaced refugees, together with scorching meals, clear water, and medical care”, stated Mr. Cheshirkov.
Benishangul Gumuz regional authorities have proven solidarity with the incoming refugees, stated UNHCR, and recognized a brand new non permanent web site, which may accommodate as much as 20,000 individuals.
“UNHCR is working to put in fundamental companies together with shelter, water factors, and latrines and to start relocating refugees to the location as quickly as potential” the UN official stated.
Mr. Cheshirkov added that UNHCR has additionally recorded the arrival of 70 Sudanese refugees, largely girls and kids, who fled the camps and returned to Sudan’s Blue Nile State.
On the similar time, UNHCR groups in Sudan, along with the Sudanese authorities and companions, are offering help to the returnees, and contingencies are being put in place in case of extra arrivals.
Three different refugee camps within the Benishangul Gumuz area – Bambasi, Sherkole and Tsore – stay totally accessible and all companies there are functioning.
Mr. Cheshirkov informed journalists that the clashes within the area had been unrelated to the battle in Tigray and that refugees had been cohabiting in the identical camps.
Continued help
Along with refugee assist, the Authorities, UNHCR and companions, have been aiding the area’s internally displaced, reaching over 100,000 individuals all through final 12 months – significantly girls and kids – with clothes, shelter, psychosocial assist, and different emergency objects.
To keep away from additional threats to civilian lives within the area, the UNHCR spokesperson underscored the necessity for an finish to the battle.
“UNHCR urges the safety of civilians, together with refugees and people forcibly displaced”, he stated.
In the meantime, some refugees who had sought and loved security and had been rebuilding their lives have once more, have tragically misplaced the whole lot.
Having solely acquired 9 per cent of the countrywide necessities of $35 million for the 12 months, UNHCR’s Ethiopia operation is in pressing want of extra assets to answer this and different emergency wants.
© UNHCR/Adelina Gomez Monteagud
UNHCR and companions transfer refugees to security within the Benishangul Gumuz area in Ethiopia.
