Refugees repatriated from Ethiopia

Thousands of Somali refugees were repatriated from camps in neighbouring Ethiopia last month, bringing the total of returnees for this year to more than 43,000. A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) told IRIN on Monday that 6,380 refugees had been repatriated from the Darur refugee camp during October, and expressed the hope that Darur refugee camp would be empty of refugees and closed down by the end of November. The spokesman said the refugees, most of whom have been living in Ethiopia for 12 years, had been repatriated to their home areas in and around the town of Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared autonomous Republic of Somaliland. There were, he said, approximately 6,000 refugees left in Darur camp, adding that if UNHCR succeeded in repatriating those still in the camp then Darur would become the third Somali refugee camp in Ethiopia to be closed down following the successful repatriation of the refugees living there. A total of about 80,000 Somali refugees remain in Ethiopia.