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UNHCR rushes aid to 20,000 refugees fleeing clashes – Global issues

Fighting broke out on January 18 in the town of Tongo – believed to be between unidentified armed groups and federal forces – and a nearby camp containing 10,300 refugees was looted and burned.

All humanitarian personnel had to evacuate and access the area – including the two camps, Tongo and Gure-Shembola –still can not“, UNHCR Spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told journalists at a regular press conference in Geneva.

Exhaustion and change

Since last December, the situation has become very tense in the Benishangul Gumuz area, where more than 70,000 Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees and more than 500,000 Ethiopians have been internally displaced.

The 20,000 fleeing refugees made the long journey to three locations near the regional capital, Assosa, arriving exhausted and in need of assistance.

“UNHCR is working with the Ethiopian Government’s Refugees and Repatriation Service and partners to provide the most urgent assistance to displaced refugees, including hot meals,” said Mr. Cheshirkov. , clean water and medical care.

The UNHCR said the Benishangul Gumuz regional government had shown solidarity with the incoming refugees and identified a new temporary site, which can accommodate up to 20,000 people.

UNHCR is working to install basic services including shelters, watering points, latrines and start moving refugees to this site as soon as possible.“The United Nations official said.

Mr. Cheshirkov added that UNHCR had also recorded the arrival of 70 Sudanese refugees, mainly women and children, who had fled the camps and returned to Sudan’s Blue Nile State.

At the same time, UNHCR teams in Sudan, together with the Sudanese authorities and partners, are assisting the returnees and contingency plans will be in place in the event of more arrivals.

Three other refugee camps in the Benishangul Gumuz region – Bambasi, Sherkole and Tsore – are still fully accessible and all services there are still operating.

Mr. Cheshirkov told journalists that the clashes in the area were unrelated to the conflict in Tigray and that the refugees had been living in the same camps.

Continue to support

In addition to supporting refugees, the Government, UNHCR and partners, have assisted people in displaced areas, reaching more than 100,000 people over the course of the last year – especially women and children – with clothing. , accommodation, psychosocial help and other emergency supplies.

A spokesman for UNHCR stressed the need for an end to the conflict to avoid further threats to civilian life in the region.

“UNHCR calls for the protection of civilians, including refugees and those who have been forcibly displaced,” he said.

Meanwhile, some refugees who had once sought and enjoyed safety and were rebuilding their lives anew, have tragically lost everything.

Having received only 9% of requests nationwide of $35 million for the year, UNHCR’s Ethiopia operation is in dire need of more resources to meet this and other urgent needs.

UNHCR and its partners move refugees to safety in the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia.

© UNHCR / Adelina Gomez Monteagud

UNHCR and its partners move refugees to safety in the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia.

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