Aid workers braced for Eritrean refugees

The authorities and aid workers in the eastern Sudanese state of Kassala were on Tuesday bracing themselves for tens of thousands more Eritrean refugees reported to be waiting to cross the border. UNHCR Representative in Khartoum, Roman Urasa, said some 50,000 people and their livestock were waiting on the Eritrean border with Sudan, still undecided whether to cross or if it was safe enough to return home. Much depended on their food supplies and access to water, Urasa told IRIN. “If they run out of food and water, and they do not consider it safe enough to return home, they will cross - and that would be a disaster,” he said.

Some 25,000 Eritrean refugees, mostly women and children, are reported to have already crossed into Sudan since the current Ethiopian offensive began on 12 May. The UNHCR had registered some 12,000 of these, but more were appearing every day, Urasa said. A joint programme had been set up by the UNHCR, the WFP and the Sudanese Commission for Refugees to provide the new arrivals with food shelter, water, sanitation and medical assistance, he added. Before the latest influx, there were already some 160,000 Eritreans in camps in Kassala state, most of whom had been there since before Eritrea won its war of independence in 1991.

Urasa said the UNHCR had borrowed from its existing programme for these long-term refugees in order to secure sufficient supplies for the new arrivals.