Talks on cooperation in refugee repatriation

Representatives from Kassala State in Sudan and the Gash Barka Region in Eritrea have met to decide how best to cooperate in the repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan, Eritrean radio reported. At their meeting in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on 3 June, General Mahmud Adam of Kassala, and Mustafa Nur Husayn, the administrator of Gash Barka, also discussed the possibility of allowing freedom of movement and free trade between the neighbouring regions. Further meetings are scheduled for the coming days, and it is hoped the representatives will come to a decision on the key refugee issue within that time, according to Eritrean radio, Voice of the Broad Masses. More than two-thirds of the 174,000 Eritrean refugees still in Sudan are reported to originate from the western area of Gash Barka. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that as of May 2001, 27,000 of these displaced people were still living in camps in the Kassala and Al-Qadarif states of eastern Sudan. UNHCR said it had been assisting refugees from these camps return home in time for planting, before the onset of the rainy season. Much of Gash Barka Region falls within the 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone separating the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. It was one of the country’s most populous regions, and produced a high percentage of the national food output before war broke out with Ethiopia in 1998.