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A plastic-covered hut at the Hamdayit refugee center in Sudan has become a source of smiles, sighs and tears for Ethiopian refugees, thanks to a hotline created to locate their families.
Like many of those who fled the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Nassant Sio came to the ramshackle shantytown to try to contact loved ones left behind or separated in the fight to flee.
“I talked to her and she’s fine,” Sio said of her mother, tears rolling down her face.
“And I reassured her about our fate,” added the 33-year-old woman who fled the border city of Humera with her husband.
A sign outside the hut reads “Restoring family ties” in English.
The telephone and message service has been established by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
More than 43,000 refugees have crossed into Sudan since the fighting broke out in Tigray on November 4, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, during his visit to Sudanese camps this week.
The Hamdayit transit center is packed with some 30,000 refugees, most of whom fled with some belongings and the clothes they were wearing.
And in the chaos of walking for hours in the scorching sun or crossing a river in makeshift boats, many families were separated.
The hotline and message service have been in great demand.
Ten Ethiopian refugees surrounded an ICRC delegate seeking news of a relative on a recent day.
The delegate sat on the floor, with a translator at his side, typing a message on a computer that would be sent to headquarters in Geneva.
From there, the message requesting information about someone who stayed in Tigray or who got lost on the way to Sudan is transmitted to another ICRC delegation closer to where those people may be.
“Yesterday I sent 90 messages,” said the ICRC employee, who did not want to be named.
‘No news from her’
Burhani Gebermakel, a 50-year-old farmer, is distraught.
He fled Humera alone, while his wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law were in Maygaba, in the western part of Tigray.
Gebermakel has not heard from them since.
“I don’t want to send a message. I want to talk to them on the phone. I want to hear their voices. That will reassure me and I will know that they are still alive,” he said.
But telecommunications with Tigray are cut off.
Inside the hut, two cell phones are placed on a small table.
Red Crescent workers tirelessly tap for Ethiopians who have relatives outside of Tigray.
One woman asked to make a call to Addis Ababa, speak quickly to a relative to tell him she is safe in Sudan and ask that the rest of the family be informed.
“This way they will know that I am alive, here in Hamdayit,” she said.
Calls are free, but limited to just three minutes, so everyone has a chance to get in touch with a loved one.
But not everyone is lucky enough to be able to make calls.
That is the case with Tasagi Gazdeher, who has not heard from her mother for 18 days.
“I come from Humera and my mother lives in Burhat. It is not far but it is impossible to communicate because both villages are in Tigray,” Gazdeher said.
The 31-year-old said she texted her mother but has not yet received a response.
“I have not heard from her. I wrote to tell him that I was safe and sound, and also gave him my Sudanese (cell phone) number.
“I hope she gets the message. I need to feel calm and so does she,” she added.
Source: News24
