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It has been 26 days since the middle-aged woman from Humera, a city in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, lost contact with her husband and children.
She is among the tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees who have crossed the border into Sudan in recent weeks to flee the fighting that broke out early last month between federal government troops and Tigray rebels.
Sitting inside a canvas tent in a border refugee camp, she again checks with the Sudanese Red Crescent Office for new information. Unwilling to give up, she says she prefers to stay in the area, hoping that her loved ones can show up here at any moment.
Such stories of separation or refugees unable to communicate with family members are common here.
The Sudanese Red Crescent, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, is trying to help.
“We started a program called ‘family reunification,’” says Hudhaifa Mohamed Saleh of the Sudanese Red Crescent.
“In the beginning, we allowed them to call their relatives for free. If that doesn’t work, we send short messages through our partner agencies in Ethiopia. So far we have made 2,500 phone calls and sent 86 messages. Seventy percent of phone calls are successful. “
In recent days, the number of refugees arriving in Sudan has risen from about 400 a day to more than 800, according to the United Nations.
Part of the increase is due to a new round of fighting that was reported between the Ethiopian army and rebel forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Shire area west of the regional capital, Mekelle.
“There is a lot of fear,” says Andrew Mbogori, emergency coordinator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “There [are] many communal conflicts within Tigray and it was easier or safer for them to come to Sudan. “
#Ethiopia we need more water points to #Tigray @refugees in Sudan. More support is needed to make that change. pic.twitter.com/4bN7PNf2yK
– Andrew Mbogori (@andrewMbogori) December 4, 2020
Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from the Um Raquba refugee camp, said there was a surge in construction activities in the settlement.
“The place is expanding,” he said. “The feeling is that this situation is going to take a long time to resolve; people say they cannot return to Ethiopia until they see a political agreement, until they make sure that the Tigray area is under the authority of a locally elected government.
In the early hours of November 4, the Addis Ababa central government launched an offensive against Tigray to capture its leaders after what it described as a surprise attack by TPLF forces against army troops stationed in the region.
More than a month of fighting is believed to have killed thousands of people, displaced more than a million and driven another 47,000 to Sudan.
A week after taking Mekelle, the government says the conflict is nearing its final stages and that it is close to capturing the TPLF leaders. The TPLF, however, says there are still fighting outside the regional capital.
Reporting from near the border, Vall said that refugees coming from Ethiopia are reporting cases of looting, as well as witnessing “two rounds of violence: the first was the arrival of the military to persecute the rebels. [away], and the second [being] members of the local militia, in particular the Amhara militia called Fano, who come after the defeat of the rebels to loot the interior of the houses and expel the civilians from their places ”.
Shimei Abra Adiko, an Ethiopian refugee in Sudan, said: “The militia said they would kill us because we are from Tigray. They told us: ‘You have 24 hours to leave’ and they started looting our animals and our properties ”.
The TPLF has also accused the forces of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of looting Mekelle.
“[They are] looting civilian properties, hotels and damaging factories after looting, “TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told a TPLF-owned television channel.
The government has previously denied targeting or discriminating against ethnic Tigrayans, insisting that its operations “primarily target the disgruntled, reactionary and rebellious members of the TPLF clique.”
With the majority of telephone and Internet communications in Tigray down and access to the region severely restricted, it is difficult to verify the statements of either side in conflict.
Some 46,000 refugees have arrived in Sudan since fighting began in Ethiopia’s Tigray last month. [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]
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