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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that some 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s besieged Tigray region for neighboring Sudan, and that it is preparing to receive up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary. .
Axel Bisschop, the agency’s representative in Sudan, told reporters that “no one at this time can say exactly how many will come,” but UN officials said the fighting continues between the Ethiopian government and regional government forces from Tigray.
Some of the refugees are arriving with accounts of shelling or planes flying overhead, but Bisschop said that for now authorities are mainly asking “humanitarian questions” as they urgently seek to provide services.
Refugees are arriving in a very remote area, and humanitarian workers must create a response to the crisis from virtually scratch, even as up to 5,000 refugees continue to arrive every day.
No one knows when the flow might decrease. “We have not heard details of the fighting, but what is definitely clear is that the fighting continues and is sporadic, you never know where it will happen,” said Hameed Nuru, Sudan representative for the World Food Program (WFP). “So it’s this anticipation and not knowing what’s causing a lot more fear and making people cross now.” He also pointed to reports that some fighters may have laid down their weapons and joined the flow of people crossing, potentially increasing tensions among those who fled.
UNICEF country representative in Sudan, Abdullah Fadil, said that about 45% of the refugees are children under 18 years of age. “This could unravel Ethiopia and also Sudan,” he said of the crisis. “We will soon be overwhelmed … if this rate continues.”
