A Sudanese organisation monitoring the movement of people in Sudan’s Blue Nile state reported that 123 Blue Nile refugees, including women and children, who previously fled to Ethiopian refugee camps have returned to El Kurmuk West and Jar Wet East in El Kurmuk locality.
The organisation stated that the Blue Nile refugees returned from the areas of Dol and Fand Fand in Ethiopia, where the refugees are reportedly living in insecurity and deteriorating humanitarian conditions. The new arrivals are badly in need of shelter, food and clean drinking water.
Geissan returnees
More than 138 Blue Nile refugees coming from the Ethiopian Asosa refugee camp reached Blue Nile’s Geissan locality when they allegedly were given a choice either to be relocated to the Tango refugee camp or return to their state of origin, a source told Radio Tamazuj.
A source from the Ethiopian camps who preferred anonymity, reported that about eight Land Cruisers belonging to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) took a number of refugees stranded at the border to the area of El Kurmuk. Among the stranded people were Zein El Abdin, El Amin Kheirallah, Salah Eldin Ismail and Jeilani Mohamed.
The commissioner of Geissan locality, Mansour Hassan, commended the return of the refugees. He also lauded the role played by the Sudanese organisations in supporting the return of the refugees.
Hassan vehemently dismissed the alleged arrest of refugees at the Sudanese-Ethiopian border by Sudanese authorities.
The commissioner reaffirmed Sudan’s good diplomatic ties with Ethiopia.
File photo
Related:
60 Blue Nile refugees in Ethiopia taken by Sudanese authorities (5 November 2013)
Four Sudanese refugees killed, 36 handed over to Sudan by Ethiopian authorities (16 September 2013)