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By Charles Emptaz in Hamdayet, Sudan | November 26, 2020
Lezabu is frantic with concern. The single mother of three has not seen two of her daughters since fleeing the crisis in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia and crossing into eastern Sudan.
“My oldest daughter left with her younger sister. I do not‘I don’t know where they are. Weeks have passed with no news, ”said Lezabu, who is currently at a reception center in Hamdayet, near Sudan’s eastern border with Ethiopia, where refugees continue to arrive by the thousands.
The 38-year-old farmer fled her small town of about 42,000 after fighting broke out.
“I think hundreds of people died that day,” he added.
“My oldest daughter left with her younger sister. I do not‘I don’t know where they are. “
Anna *, a public health official who was working at a health center when the attacks occurred, also fled when the fighting approached.
“We heard screams and knew we had to run for our lives,” he said.
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Ethiopians who fled the fighting in the Tigray region gather in the village of Hamdait on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia in eastern Kassala state. © UNHCR / El Tayeb Siddig
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A girl is lifted from a boat carrying Ethiopian refugees across the Serit River, along the Hamdayet border point in Sudan. © UNHCR / Olivier Jobard
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Ethiopian refugees await registration at the Hamdayet reception center in Sudan. © UNHCR / Olivier Jobard
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A young Ethiopian refugee sleeps on a mattress at a transit point in Hamdayet, Sudan. © UNHCR / Olivier Jobard
Anna and her family were reunited with their neighbor that night, who transported them on his tractor. But armed men ambushed them, forcing them to flee in the opposite direction. She separated from her children and her husband, and ended up in the town of Humera, where she heard it was safer.
“But the moment we got to town, we saw someone get shot in the head, right in front of us,” he says, shuddering. “We saw a lot of looting; people were stealing from houses. We were very scared. “
After five days of hiding in Humera, he managed to find his way safely across the border into Sudan.
“We saw someone get shot in the head, right in front of us.”
Lezabu and Anna are among a recent wave of refugees who have reached Hamdayet, more than 400 kilometers from the border with Ethiopia. More than 5,000 women, children and men fled the ongoing fighting over the weekend, bringing the number of Ethiopian refugees who have arrived in Sudan to more than 40,000 since the crisis began in early November.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and their partners are delivering and distributing life-saving aid, including hot meals, water and latrines for those who arrive. Personnel at the Hamdayet border crossing in Kassala state and the Lugdi crossing in Gedaref state register thousands of new arrivals every day.
The most vulnerable refugees, including the elderly, pregnant and lactating women and children, receive special care, including complementary feeding.
But the humanitarian response continues to face logistical challenges.
The relocation of refugees across the border is hampered by logistics and distances, limiting the number of people transferred to the Um Rakuba camp in Gedaref, some 80 kilometers inside Sudan.
“We have a challenge that is mainly to relocate the refugees. The process takes more than 15 hours from this reception center to Um Raquba. It’s a lot of work, ”explained Mamoun Abuarqub, UNHCR’s emergency coordinator who is monitoring the situation.
“We never expect to be refugees. I can tell you that for sure. “
As more people continue to arrive in Sudan, refugees like Filimon are trying to come to terms with the situation.
“We never expect to be refugees. We never expected these things because we were in a very safe condition, ”Filimon said. “We were developing and trying to help our families. We never expected this, I can assure you ”.
Robert, a teenager in college, nodded.
“Everything was fine. But now, I have lost my mother and my sister in the madness of this situation, ”he said. “I just hope that we find peace again.”
* names have been changed for protection reasons
