200,000 war-displaced return home

The return of 200,000 civilians displaced as a result of the border war with Ethiopia has been completed, AFP quoted the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC) as saying on Tuesday. The last truck carrying such people, many of whom fled to relief camps when war broke out in 1998, delivered them to their homes on 22 July, ERREC official Ibrahim Said told AFP. The operation began in April as part of a major effort to get people home ahead of the main rains and planting season, humanitarian sources in Asmara told IRIN. Many of the war-displaced are from the agriculturally important Gash Barka and Debub regions, considered the “bread-basket” of Eritrea. “Last year there was very little farm production, but with the majority of people now home and the rains starting, prospects for a good harvest this November are much improved,” the source said, though warning that even with improved production this year, the country was expected to remain food-deficit and in need of continued aid. While most of the internally displaced had returned to their villages in and around the Temporary Security Zone, some 50,000 civilians were unable to return because of uncleared land mines or the presence of Ethiopian troops in some areas, Ibrahim told AFP. These people have been moved to seven temporary camps located as close as possible to their places of origin. UN humanitarian agencies and a number of international NGOs are working with the Eritrean government to assist the displaced as they return home. The UN Development Programme is helping to mobilise international resources and support for the operation through its Postwar Emergency Recovery Programme. In a complementary initiative, the Italian government is funding the resettlement of war-displaced from the Mekete camp to various villages in the Gash Barka region. So far, however, the Eritrean government has received less than half of the US $223 million estimated as needed to assist people affected by both drought and conflict in the country. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, a similar number of war-displaced are reported to have returned to their home villages. As the majority had found shelter with relatives and friends close to disputed border during the conflict, the movement home was largely spontaneous. According to a donor update issued by UNICEF on 24 July, though pending confirmation from local authorities, humanitarian agencies report approximately 80 percent of the war-displaced civilians in the Tigray and Afar regions have returned to their areas of origin. At the height of the war, an estimated 345,000 civilians were forced to flee fighting along the border adjacent to these two regions.