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July 10, 2024 (Nairobi) – A New York-based human rights organization has expressed concern about the lack of a clear protection or evacuation strategy for the more than one million refugees living in Sudan when conflict broke out in mid-April 2023.
Most of the refugees are fleeing oppression in Eritrea or brutality in Ethiopia.
There are concerns about recent attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on towns in Sennar state, which borders Gedaref state and is currently hosting more than 40,000 Ethiopian refugees.
Furthermore, further east in Sudan, Eritreans fleeing repression and indefinite conscription at home are arriving in refugee camps in Kassala state.
“If the fighting spreads to Gedaref and Kassala, we will not be safe,” an Ethiopian refugee told Leticia Bader, the Horn of Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
Ethiopian refugees, who are mainly housed in Gedaref, have been worried about their safety and lack of humanitarian assistance since the conflict in Sudan broke out, according to a U.S.-based human rights agency. Some have sought ways to leave the camp on their own, but thousands remain.
Without a clear protection or evacuation strategy, there are concerns that people in the camps could be exposed to violence or targeted attacks by warring parties.
This follows allegations by the paramilitary RSF that the Tigray army is currently fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The Sudanese army frequently releases videos of Ethiopian refugees allegedly fighting alongside the Rapid Security Forces, which explains the officers’ hostility towards the group.
In addition, refugees face the risk of mass arrests by Sudanese armed forces authorities in towns in Gedaref region, where some Ethiopians have reportedly been detained.
Human Rights Watch further stated that it continues to receive reports of Ethiopian military complicity in the forcible expulsion of Tigrayans to other areas of Tigray.
Here they were joined by several other internally displaced persons who were facing dire circumstances.
Ethiopian authorities have reportedly set up a committee to repatriate refugees from Sudan to Ethiopia, but refugees in the camps need travel permission from Sudanese authorities.
The human rights body called on UN agencies, working with Sudanese and Ethiopian authorities, to facilitate the safe, dignified, voluntary and organized departure of refugees, while ensuring that no one is forced or coerced to return to where they would be at serious risk.
Organizations and the international community are also called upon to consider all possible means of support, including cash and transportation, to ensure refugees are removed from any form of danger.
Sudan’s internally displaced population exceeds 9 million, aid agencies say Shift World crisis.
(English stone)
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