The UN refugee agency continues to register new arrivals fleeing Tigray to Ethiopian border with Sudan, APA can report on Wednesday.
Some 800 people crossed from Ethiopia’s Tigray region into eastern Sudan in just the first few days of the new year.
Since early November, more than 56,000 Ethiopian refugees have fled to neighbouring Sudan.
Latest arrivals tell of being caught in the conflict and being victims of various armed groups, facing perilous situations including looting of their homes, forceful recruitment of men and boys, and sexual violence against women and girls.
“Refugees are arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs, fatigued and in weak conditions after sometimes days of travel. More than 30 percent of them are estimated to be under 18 and 5 per cent over 60 years old,” UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday.
In support of the government-led response in Sudan, UNHCR and Sudan’s Commission for Refugees (COR) continue to relocate the refugees from arrival at the border to the designated refugee camps, further inland in Gedaref State.
With the UN Rakuba refugee camp approaching its full capacity, UNHCR and its partners are striving to swiftly relocate refugees from reception sites at the border to a second, newly opened refugee camp, Tunaydbah, in order to keep refugees safe and offer them better living conditions.
The new site is located some 136 kilometres from Gedaref town.
Since this Sunday, 580 refugees were relocated to Tunaydbah village one of eight reception sites, with relocation from Hamdayet set to start later in the week.
Both reception sites are overcrowded, and their close location to the border puts the safety and security of refugees increasingly at risk.
As at the end of 2020, $40 million has been pledged to UNHCR for the regional response to the emergency in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which covers only 37 percent of the financial requirements in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti.
MG/as/APA