Sudan crisis traps Ethiopians displaced by Tigray war between two conflicts

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Updated 23 May 2023
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Sudan crisis traps Ethiopians displaced by Tigray war between two conflicts

  • Strife-torn country was home to 1.1 million refugees before the eruption of violence on April 15
  • Outbreaks of fighting forced many Tigrayans to seek refuge in neighboring Sudan in recent years

JUBA: Tens of thousands of refugees who escaped ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray find themselves trapped in neighboring Sudan, once a safe haven for the region’s displaced, now itself the site of a worsening humanitarian emergency.

Adise Gemechu, an Ethiopian refugee and a mother of two children who has lived in Khartoum since leaving her native Tigray, says the Sudanese capital is in a state of chaos. “There are airstrikes. It’s terrible,” she told Arab News.

“We’ve closed our doors and are in the house. The children cry if I open the doors.”

Now over a month since Sudan’s conflict erupted, Khartoum has become a war zone, with families huddling at home as gun battles rage in the streets. Meanwhile, the western region of Darfur has descended into chaos.

Residents of Khartoum, a city of 5 million, have endured weeks of food shortages, power blackouts, communications outages and runaway inflation. Foreign embassies have suspended operations and hospitals, banks, shops and wheat silos have been ransacked by looters.




Ethiopian refugees who fled the fighting in the Tigray region transport merchandise using a donkey-pulled cart, at Umm Rakuba camp in eastern Sudan’s Gedaref State. (File/AFP)

Around 1,000 people have been killed, mainly in and around Khartoum as well as the ravaged state of West Darfur, according to medics. Saudi Arabia has hosted envoys from both sides in a bid to halt the conflict and allow humanitarian access.

In addition to the threat of being caught in the crossfire, refugees who remain in Sudan face significant difficulties accessing food, with many families forced to limit their meals to just one per day owing to scarcity.




A vehicle of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces drives down Al-Sittin Road in Khartoum, on May 22, 2023. (AFP)

As a result, many have been left in an impossible position — unable to stay put, but too afraid to risk returning home.

“Refugees face a painful dilemma of whether to go back to where they fled from,” William Carter, Sudan country director at the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Arab News. “It’s a tragic choice they have.”

The situation has been particularly difficult for Tigrayans who fled persecution as well as for refugees and migrants from Eritrea and other neighboring countries.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Sudan was home to 1.1 million refugees prior to the eruption of violence on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, making it one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world.

Now, more than 700,000 people have been internally displaced by the violent power struggle, and nearly 200,000 have fled Sudan for neighboring countries. There are fears for the stability of the wider region.

FASTFACTS

* Before the war erupted, Sudan hosted one of the largest refugee populations in Africa

* Sudan welcomed and assisted 58,000 Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR)




Smoke rises above buildings in southern Khartoum on May 19, 2023. (AFP)

The situation in Um Rakuba refugee camp in the east of Sudan, which hosts around 20,000 Tigrayan refugees, is “deteriorating, with limited access to aid due to unsafe roads and markets hit hard by inflation,” Ahmed Shaweesh, a humanitarian aid worker for the Norwegian Refugee Council, recently posted on Twitter.

“Prices of basic necessities have skyrocketed, leaving refugees struggling to afford even basic items.”

In November 2020, a two-year war erupted between Ethiopia’s federal government and forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and caused famine-like situations for hundreds of people.

Periodic outbreaks of fighting have forced many to repeatedly seek refuge in neighboring Sudan in recent years.

Maebel Gebremedhin, co-founder of Tigray Action Committee, was born in the Safaw refugee camp in Sudan in 1986 after her family fled the so-called Red Terror — a period of extreme violence and repression carried out by Ethiopia’s Marxist military regime known as the Derg.

“This is devastating. Being in Sudan was never the goal for the Tigrayans. This was just the opportunity to survive,” Gebremedhin told Arab News. “Right now, they are trapped in another war, experiencing devastation after devastation.”

Last November, the government and the TPLF struck a peace agreement in the South African capital, Pretoria, that allowed additional aid to reach the region. However, despite the pact, the situation remains dire for many Tigrayans.

“The peace process in Ethiopia seems to be working, but Eritreans continue to occupy some parts of Tigray, with the support of the Amhara region forces,” Mohamed Kheir Omer, an expert on the region’s affairs, told Arab News.

The continuing dispute over the status of Western Tigray, also known as Welkait-Tegede among members of the Amhara ethnic group, which borders Sudan, remains an obstacle to the return of displaced communities, he added.

According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the disputed area has been the site of multiple crimes against humanity and bouts of ethnic cleansing.

Tigrayan activists have broadly denounced the Pretoria peace agreement, citing allegations of the continued marginalization and dispossession of their people.

“The political negotiation was one-sided,” Leake Zegeye, an activist who fled the Tigray region when the fighting erupted in late 2020, told Arab News.




A Sudanese army armoured vehicle is stationed in southern Khartoum on May 21, 2023. (AFP)

“The Tigrayan people were not properly represented, and six months after its signing, the deal has been badly implemented.”

To achieve the security of Tigrayans caught up in the fighting in Sudan, Zegeye says the only solution is to resolve the dispute in their home country and permit them to safely return.

“My heart goes out to the people of Sudan because they have been very kind and accommodating,” he said.

“Refugees are now vulnerable to attacks; they must be put back to their rightful places where they were evicted from.”


Japanese prime minister praises Saudi Arabia’s role in addressing the Gaza crisis

Updated 15 sec ago
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Japanese prime minister praises Saudi Arabia’s role in addressing the Gaza crisis

  • PM Ishiba made the remarks during a telephone summit with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
  • Ishiba stated that he would like to strengthen the strategic partnership between Japan and Saudi Arabia

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hailed “Saudi Arabia’s leadership on Gaza” and expressed his determination to continue working with the Kingdom to bring stability to the Middle East.

Ishiba made the remarks during a telephone summit with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, during which he expressed his hope that Saudi Arabia would continue to play a leading role in stabilizing the global oil market.

The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said the crown prince expressed his wish to deepen cooperation with Japan in various fields, including politics, economics, security, and potentially technology transfer and cultural exchange.

Ishiba said he would like Japan and Saudi Arabia to expand cooperation to areas including clean energy, advanced technology, and entertainment.

With 2025 marking the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ishiba reiterated his commitment to peace and stability in the region. He stated that he would like to strengthen the strategic partnership between Japan and Saudi Arabia and work even more closely together to promote these values. The crown prince also affirmed his commitment to these goals, stating that Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to its relations with Japan and welcomes further cooperation.

The Foreign Ministry added that both leaders shared their concerns about conflicts in the Middle East and the need for all parties involved to exercise maximum restraint. Ishiba said he appreciated Saudi Arabia’s leadership on Gaza, and the two leaders agreed to continue working closely together to achieve stability in the Middle East.


Syrian state media: Israel attacked town near Lebanon border

Updated 1 min 22 sec ago
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Syrian state media: Israel attacked town near Lebanon border

DAMASCUS: An Israeli strike hit a Syrian town near the border with Lebanon on Tuesday, Syrian state media said, less than a week after deadly strikes on the same area.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the industrial zone in Al-Qusayr” in Homs province, the official SANA news agency said. There was no immediate news of casualties or damage.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on Syria since it launched its war on Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 43,391

Updated 56 min 38 sec ago
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 43,391

  • The toll includes 17 deaths in the previous 24 hours

GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 43,391 people have been killed in the year-old war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 17 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 102,347 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.


Greece says migrant arrivals rising in south-east islands

Updated 05 November 2024
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Greece says migrant arrivals rising in south-east islands

  • At the end of October, several hundred migrants set up tents and cardboard houses outside the local government offices of the city of Rhodes, sparking anger among residents
  • Rhodes mayor Alexandros Koliadis told Rodiaki that the island lacks the personnel, police officers and coast guard needed to register the arrivals before transferring them to camps

ATHENS: Some islands in the southeast of the Aegean sea, including Rhodes, are seeing an increase in migrants arriving by boat from Turkiye, Greek migration and asylum minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said Tuesday.
“The southeast of the Aegean and the island of Rhodes are experiencing migratory pressure right now,” he said on public television station ERT, though he said the increase does not appear to be linked to rising tensions in the Middle East.
At the end of October, several hundred migrants set up tents and cardboard houses outside the local government offices of the city of Rhodes, sparking anger among residents and local authorities.
According to local media Rodiaki, more than 700 migrants arrived during the last week of October.
Rhodes mayor Alexandros Koliadis told Rodiaki that the island lacks the personnel, police officers and coast guard needed to register the arrivals before transferring them to camps on the mainland or in other islands.
Previously, Aegean islands further north such as Lesbos and Samos had received the brunt of migrants crossing from Turkish shores.
Crete, which has likewise seen an increase in arrivals from Libya, also needs to build facilities to process migrants.
Greece has seen a 25 percent increase this year in the number of people fleeing war and poverty, with a 30 percent increase alone to Rhodes and the south-east Aegean, according to the Migration Ministry.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says 48,158 arrivals have been recorded so far in 2024, of which around 42,000 arrived by boat and 6,000 by crossing the land frontier with Turkiye.
“The camps on the islands have an occupancy rate of 100 percent. But on the mainland they are only 55 percent full, which provides a margin in the event of an increase in arrivals on the islands,” Panagiotopoulos said.


Sudan files AU complaint against Chad over arms: minister

Updated 05 November 2024
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Sudan files AU complaint against Chad over arms: minister

  • Chad last month denied accusations that it was “amplifying the war in Sudan” by arming the RSF

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s army-backed government on Tuesday accused neighboring Chad of supplying arms to rebel militias, likely referring to the paramilitary forces it is battling.
The northeast African country has been engulfed by war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the regular army, led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Justice minister Muawiya Osman said Burhan’s administration had lodged the complaint against Chad at the African Union.
Speaking to reporters, including AFP, Osman said the government demanded compensation and accused Chad of “supplying arms to rebel militias” and causing “harm to Sudanese citizens.”
“We will present evidence to the relevant authorities,” he added from Port Sudan, where Burhan relocated after fighting spread to the capital, Khartoum.
Chad last month denied accusations that it was “amplifying the war in Sudan” by arming the RSF.
“We do not support any of the factions that are fighting on Sudanese territory — we are in favor of peace,” foreign minister and government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said at the time.
The United Nations has been using the Adre border crossing between the two countries to deliver humanitarian aid.
Sudan had initially agreed to keep the crossing open for three months, a period set to expire on November 15. Authorities in Khartoum have yet to decide whether to extend the arrangement.
The Sudanese war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, including 3.1 million who are now sheltering beyond the country’s borders.