UNHCR says refugees trickling back from Sudan

UNHCR said on Tuesday that Eritrean refugees had been trickling back across the border from Sudan over the past few days, despite very difficult conditions in western Eritrea. Spokesman Kris Janowski said it was hard to give an accurate estimate of how many refugees were returning out of a total of 94,000 registered in Sudan’s Kassala state since the outbreak of fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia last month. Many of the returnees were using unofficial crossing points. Conditions for those going back were hampered by a serious lack of food and other relief supplies in western Eritrea, although the areas of Tesseney and Talatashar were reported to have electricity and running water, Janowski said.

But the start of the rains meant that many roads were turning into mud, further complicating the relief operation. On Monday, the UNHCR handed over 11 heavy trucks to the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC) to deliver emergency relief supplies to displaced people and returning refugees.