Two Sudanese refugees die in Ethiopia attack

Two Sudanese refugees were reportedly killed and 10 others were injured in an attack launched by gunmen yesterday evening on the Awlala forests in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, where refugees have been holding a sit-in since the beginning of May.

A Sudanese refugee from the Awlala camp, who preferred to withhold his name for security reasons, told Radio Dabanga that a group of armed bandits (called shifta in the region) attacked the refugees in the forest and opened heavy fire, killing a Sudanese refugee instantly. Her husband died later from his injuries, while 10 others were injured, some of them in critical condition.

The attack took place hours after a delegation from the Ethiopian Refugee and Returnees Commission (a government agency) visited the forest as part of efforts to transfer the Sudanese refugees to the Aftit camp, which was recently established in the same region and is located near the town of Shahidi.

While the gunmen have not been identified, it is generally known that the FANO militia, are particularly active in the Amhara region.

Radio Dabanga made several calls to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ethiopian Refugee and Returnees Commission to comment on the news, but no immediate response was available.

More than 6,000 Sudanese refugees have been protesting in the Awlala camp since the beginning of last May, demanding to be relocated to a safer place outside the region.

On Friday, Ethiopian authorities transferred 300 South Sudanese refugees from Awlala camp to the Iftat camp. Sudanese refugees from Kumer camp told Radio Dabanga that they heard that the camp lacks protection and infrastructure and is two kilometres away from the road.

The Kumer camp, adjacent to Awlala, was attacked on Friday. Armed men robbed the refugees’ property and wounding two of them with rifle butts.

On Wednesday, gunmen reportedly attacked a police station near the Kumer camp, killing nine Ethiopian policemen.

The UNHCR reported yesterday that “the Awlala and Kumer refugee sites will be gradually closed to ensure adequate security, protection and improved services and assistance for those forced to flee”.

The Kumer and Awlala camps host about 8,000 refugees, most of whom are Sudanese. A small number are South Sudanese who also fled the war in Sudan.

The statement described the Aftit site as good for enhancing the security and protection of refugees. The site will host up to 12,500 refugees, mostly from Sudan, including those previously hosted in the refugee sites in Awlala and Kumer and those in transit centres.

Sudanese refugees from the two camps camps told Radio Dabanga that the authorities already moved 300 refugees from South Sudan to Aftit camp on Friday. The refugees who were transferred told them that the new site lacks security and protection units, infrastructure, and services.

However, the UNHCR promised in the statement to continue developing the site in Aftit, and to work hard to ensure that basic services are available and sufficient for refugee families, as well as to allocate resources to enhance the services already available in Aftit to benefit refugees and their host communities.

The local authorities in Aftit also committed to ensuring that refugees are integrated into the education and health systems.