IDPs still waiting to go home

An estimated 44,387 Eritrean internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain in eight camps in Gash-Barka and Debub provinces, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a press briefing on 9 November. In addition to these, another 9,311 IDPs are living outside the camps, in locations around Guluj, Gergef, and Sabunaite in Gash-Barka Province, according to the Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (ERREC), UNMEE said. These IDPs are mainly from the Om Hajer area and are awaiting the restoration of social services and the completion of the mine-clearance work in the area, said UNMEE. According to UNMEE, there were originally 70,000 IDPs who were unable to return to their homes. Part of the reduction in IDP numbers is due to the recent return of some 7,000 from Tserona town to their homes, spontaneous returns to other areas, and more accurate camp population figures. The government of Eritrea, UN agencies and UNMEE were all working to facilitate the return of the remaining IDPs, including "a humanitarian mine-action programme, rehabilitation of social services and providing of food and non-food assistance", said UNMEE. The return of Eritrean refugees from Sudan, which was suspended because of the rainy season, resumed on 20 October. About 3,532 individuals had so far returned under the second phase of the programme being operated jointly by ERREC and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said UNMEE. Returning refugees first go a transit camp set up by the UN refugee agency in Tesenay, and then to their home villages. The vast majority of the returnees had so far gone to villages outside the Temporary Security Zone, said UNMEE.