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Some 100,000 Eritrean refugees near the Tigray border face acute food shortages and many even forcibly repatriated to their home country they fled due to persecution
By La Croix International staff | Ethiopia
Thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray not only face acute food shortages but may have also been killed, kidnapped or forcibly repatriated to their home country they fled.
While there is much focus on the tens of thousands of Ethiopians who have fled to Sudan from Tigray during the fighting, there is growing concern about the some 100,000 Eritrean refugees in the region, living in camps near the Tigray border and who found themselves on the front line of the conflict.
For almost two decades Ethiopia has been a hospitable country for the Eritrean refugees who fled their home country due to political persecution and compulsory military service.
"Apart from armed clashes two threats are looming in the refugee camps: that of forced repatriation to Eritrea and enormous livelihood difficulties due to the sudden interruption of all forms of assistance and supplies, including the most essential goods", Father Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean Catholic priest working with the refugees, told FIDES.
The threat of repatriation is in particular from Shimelba camp, located furthest to the north and closest to the border with Eritrea.
For days, reports were circulating of how some 6,000 refugees were repatriated under arrest by Eritrean military units who have entered Tigray as allies of the Ethiopian federal army. "Basically, a real mass deportation," said Father Zerai.
"No one can ignore that all refugees are considered by the Eritrean government as 'traitors' and 'deserters'. Forcing them to return to Eritrea means exposing them to real reprisals including prison and death", he said.
The UNHCR has reported similar situations.
"The camps will have now run out of food supplies -- making hunger and malnutrition a real danger, a warning we have been issuing since the conflict began nearly a month ago," UNHCR said in a recent briefing in Geneva.
"Our extreme worry is that we hear about attacks, the fighting near the camps, we hear about abductions and forced removals, so this is very important for us to have that access to go and see what has happened over there," its spokesman Babar Baloch told media persons.
UNHCR has already appealed to the government of Ethiopia to continue to fulfill its responsibility in hosting and protecting Eritrean refugees and allow humanitarians to access people who are now desperately in need.
Communications and aid access have been blocked since fighting broke out between the Ethiopian federal government and Ethiopia's Tigray region.
While the Ethiopian government has now signed an agreement with the United Nations to allow the creation of a humanitarian corridor "without obstacles" for areas under the control of the federal government for food, medicines and other essential aid to reach in Tigray, the UNHCR confirms that communications to the Tigray region continue to be severed, along with transportation routes.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the military offensive in Tigray had ended after federal forces took control of Tigray's capital Mekelle. However, the Tigray People's Liberation Front leadership maintains that fighting continues and its forces have made some gains.
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