OAU explores refugee conditions in Kassala

An official from the OAU refugees committee visited Kassala, eastern Sudan, on Thursday, having arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday, to acquaint himself with the conditions of the refugees in camps there. Meanwhile, meetings of a joint committee for the voluntary repatriation of the Eritrean refugees - comprising the UNHCR, Eritrean government and refugee representatives - would start meeting on Saturday 15 July, the official Suna news agency reported. WFP has been providing food for 94,000 Eritreans who fled to Sudan during the recent conflict, a UN press release stated on Thursday. When these refugees start returning home, “they will need food to get them through the hardship of repatriation, reintegration and resettlement, particularly as their homes are not likely to be intact,” WFP added. The agency said it would soon need additional resources to feed the refugees through to mid-December.

Planed voluntary repatriation of more than 100,000 long-term Eritrean refugees - who fled during the pre-independence war - had to be suspended when the border conflict resumed. The border war increased the number of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, and also made it difficult to repatriate to eastern Eritrea - where the majority of the pre-independence war refugees were from - because of an Ethiopian occupation of the major regional town of Barentu.