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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Two camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region hosting Eritrean refugees have been closed and their occupants relocated, authorities said on Thursday, after the United Nations said residents had reported attacks, including suspected soldiers. Eritreans.
UNHCR’s refugee agency has called for protection for residents of the Shimelba and Hitsats camps, which it says were attacked by gunmen who killed and abducted refugees. On February 1, he said that residents had reported that Eritrean troops had forced some refugees to return to Eritrea.
Allegations of Eritrean military presence are one of the most contentious issues in Tigray, where the central government has claimed victory over a rogue regional government in a conflict that began in November.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have denied that Eritrean troops operated on Ethiopian territory. Overthrown Tigrayan regional authorities and many residents accuse Eritrea of intervening on behalf of the central government.
Tesfahun Gobezay, director general of the Ethiopia Agency for Refugee and Returned Affairs (ARRA), confirmed the camp closures, first reported by the state news agency on Wednesday.
The state-appointed human rights commission reported Thursday that Shimelba and Hitsats had been “destroyed.” Tesfahun told Reuters the description was an “exaggeration.”
“There was a lot of fighting in those areas, not in the camps but in those areas where the camps are located,” he said.
“The refugees did not receive the necessary services quickly and also panicked due to the shooting that occurred in the camps. So they came out of the camps and the Ethiopian defense forces sheltered them and escorted them to the nearest cities of Tigray, ”he said.
He said that 5,300 refugees had gone to two other refugee camps in Tigray. Others were now in the cities of Tigray or in the capital Addis Ababa.
Chris Melzer, a UNHCR spokesman, said the agency agreed with the conclusion that the camps were now unsafe, “considering the reports of attacks on Hitsats and Shimelba, reports of kidnappings, destruction, looting and killings of humanitarian personnel. ”. Relocation decisions must be voluntary and movements must be organized with safety and dignity, he said.
ACHIEVABLE CAMPS
Aid agencies say they have been unable to reach the camps since the conflict broke out in Tigray. Reports from all sides are difficult to verify because communications with the region remain patchy and the government strictly controls access.
The United Nations said on February 1 that refugees who had fled the two camps spoke of “infiltration of armed actors into the camps, of killings, kidnappings and also some forced returns to Eritrea by Eritrean forces.”
In December, a United Nations team was shot while trying to reach Shimelba camp. Two diplomatic sources told Reuters that the UN team had encountered uniformed Eritrean troops.
The Ethiopian government’s emergency task force for Tigray did not immediately respond to questions about the camps, while the prime minister’s office referred Reuters to ARRA.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military campaign in Tigray to eliminate the then-ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), after the government said regional forces attacked federal troops. Abiy has declared victory, but low-level fighting has continued in some areas.
Protests broke out in the regional capital Mekelle on Tuesday and continued Wednesday, with residents blocking roads, protesting reported killings by Eritrean troops and the failure of the elderly to stop the war. One person was shot dead after soldiers opened fire on protesters, according to residents and a humanitarian worker.
Eteneshe Nigusse, a spokeswoman for a government-appointed interim administration in Tigray, said she needed to verify the casualty reports for sure. She told Reuters that “the presence of the Eritrean army in Tigray” was an important issue raised at a meeting of religious leaders, elders and the public on Tuesday.
Report from the Nairobi newsroom; Written by William Maclean; Edited by Peter Graff
