Latest report from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, suggested that the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has attacked the Berhale refugee camp where Eritrean refugees are staying in Ethiopia’s Afar region.
According to a UNHCR report released Saturday, “at least five Eritrean refugees were killed and several women were kidnapped.”
The gunmen entered the refugee camp, killed the refugees and looted their belongings, the UN agency said citing witnesses in the camp.
The chaos from the TPLF raid of the refugee camp has caused another problem too. “Family members lost one another in the chaos of fleeing the camp,” as reported by the UNHCR.
The incident from Berhale Refugee Camp is said to have displaced well over 4000 Eritrean refugees who trekked to Semara, seat of Afar regional state.
The refugee agency said that it “is working with the Ethiopian authorities and partners to provide emergency aid to thousands of Eritrean refugees who fled Barahle refugee camp and its environs in the Afar region after fighting engulfed the area.”
The refugees are said to be in need of shelter and other emergency aid including food and clean water.
Earlier this month, UN Deputy Secretary Amina Mohammed visited residents who were displaced from the five districts of Afar near Tigray where the TPLF opened a mechanized military campaign.
Local forces in Afar have been responding to it, as reported by the regional government and activists, but reversing artillery shelling proved to be a challenge as regional forces are armed only with individual and light group assault rifles.
MG/abj/APA