Repatriation speeded up

Dry weather has given a boost to the voluntary repatriation of Eritrean refugees from camps in eastern Sudan, with a total of 16,746 returning home since the start of the operation on 25 July. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redman told a briefing in New York on Friday that the dry weather had made it easier for heavily-loaded trucks to travel from the eastern Sudanese state of Kassala into western Eritrea. “People are still packing their belongings onto trucks, including small livestock and chickens, as well as cooking utensils, blankets and tents or plastic sheets that they received in the camps in Sudan,” he said. Most of the returnees are farmers who are anxious to plant before the rainy season is over, he added. UNHCR believes that some people are waiting a little longer before returning, especially “people coming from Omar Hajer and other parts of southern Eritrea still occupied by Ethiopian troops, or people concerned about security”. Those who have been repatriated are being returned to areas judged safe in southwestern parts of Eritrea, including Tesseney, Guluj, Talatasher, Ghergef and Telebdia, said the UNHCR spokesman.

Some 100,000 Eritreans fled to neighbouring Sudan when the two-year Ethiopian-Eritrean border war flared up again in May. A ceasefire was signed on 18 June, with plans to deploy a UN peacekeeping mission along the disputed border.