More than 58,000 Ethiopian refugees flee into Sudan: UN

Ethiopian refugees

Ethiopian refugees, who fled the Tigray conflict, walk in the Tenedba camp in Mafaza, eastern Sudan on January 8, 2021. UNHCR says 58,612 Ethiopian refugees have been registered in Sudan since the conflict in Tigray started.

Photo credit: Ashraf Shazly | AFP

Addis Ababa

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Sunday said that more than 58,000 Ethiopian refugees fled into neighbouring Sudan amid military confrontation in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region.

A total of 58,612 Ethiopian refugees have been registered in Sudan since military confrontations between the federal and regional forces in the Tigray region broke out in November 2020, the agency said in its latest situation update.

According to the UNHCR, in a bid to mitigate "potential health and security risks," the UN body has been working with partners to relocate refugees to camps away from the border, and 26,864 refugees have been moved to the designated refugee camps.

The Ethiopian government is presently providing protection to nearly one million refugees mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, who are being hosted across 26 camps and non-camp locations