In Geissan in Blue Nile state, some 600 refugees have returned from Aulo Beg and Amrama in Ethiopia. According to local NGOs most of these returnees are children moving due to hunger, lack of shelter and poor livelihood, UNOCHA reports.
Another 400 Sudanese refugees also returned on foot to the Amora mountains in Geissan. Apparently the Ethiopian authorities requested them either to relocate to Tongo refugee camp inside Ethiopia or to return to Sudan.
In Bau locality some 140 displaced people fled Abugarin at the border of Damazin and Bumruk. They went to Modyam and Khor Maganza, reportedly due to recent fighting between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North and the Sudan Armed Forces. The displaced people are reportedly in need of food, shelter and livelihood support.
A further 160 displaced people moved on foot and cart from El Sheed Afandi in Bau locality to Hai Rauh Balak, Hai Banat and Hai El Zhoor of Damazin.
File photo: Sudanese refugees wave at buses taking returnees home from camps in western Ethiopia to south Sudan in 2007 (UNHCR)
Related: ‘Malnutrition and worsening health in rebel-held Blue Nile, Sudan’ (15 December 2013)