The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern over thousands of scattered Eritrean refugees after their camp in Ethiopia was burned down to the ground.
UNHCR said satellite imagery and testimony from those who have fled attacks confirmed that Eritrean refugees’ camps in embattled Tigray region have been burned to the ground.
UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told reporters in Geneva that all the humanitarian facilities at the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps in the northern Ethiopian region were “looted and vandalised”.
The mission, conducted jointly by UNHCR and the UN humanitarian coordination arm, OCHA, found that most shelters in the Hitsats camp, as well as the UN offices and the staff guest house had been destroyed.
The joint mission had also managed to visit Shiraro town, where refugees were believed to be scattered and “in urgent need of safety and support”.
A subsequent mission will aim to identify the numbers living in the area and determine whether UNHCR and the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) could deliver aid there and work out plans for voluntary relocation.
“UNHCR is deeply concerned for the well-being of the Eritrean refugees who had been residing there, all of whom have fled the camps”, Mr. Cheshirkov added.
Around 20,000 refugees had been living in the two camps prior to the crisis erupting last November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military campaign in Tigray after the region’s governing party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), launched attacks on army camps.
MG/abj/APA