Repatriation speeds up

UNHCR said a total of 11,785 war-affected Eritrean refugees had returned since the voluntary repatriation programme from camps in eastern Sudan began on 25 July. The number was expected to increase “dramatically” with the deployment of 393 trucks on Tuesday, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told journalists a press conference in Geneva. “The camp populations in Kassala are thinning out. Many refugees are seen packing up and preparing to leave”, he said. The returnees are heading to 17 towns in western Eritrea, and pass through a reception centre in Tesseney, near the Sudan border.

About 900 returnees a night stay in the Tesseney centre, where they are registered and provided with a two-month food ration. They are then taken on by truck to their final destination. Heavy rains hampered the operation at the start, but a recent improvement in the weather was expected to speed up the voluntary return of some 90,000 refugees who fled when the two-year border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea resumed in May. A ceasefire agreement signed on 18 June is to be observed by the OAU and monitored by a UN peacekeeping force.