Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG , UNITED NATIONS
Ethiopia conflict: thousands of Eritrean refugees flee new deadly attack on camp
Thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia have fled their camp in Afar region after a deadly attack earlier this month, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.
The UN agency told journalists in Geneva that unidentified assailants targeted Barahle camp on 3 February after fighting engulfed the area, according to harrowing accounts provided by refugees.
“Refugees who trekked the long distance to the regional capital in Semera told UNHCR staff that armed men entered the camp on 3 February, stole their belongings and occupied their homes,” said UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov. “According to their testimonies, at least five refugees were killed. Family members lost one another in the chaos of fleeing the camp.”
The attack is just the latest instance where Eritrean nationals living in Ethiopia have come under fire, since conflict erupted and spread from the northern region of Tigray in November 2020.
A joint investigation by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in November 2021 highlighted how Tigrayan and national Ethiopian fighters had put the security and lives of thousands at risk in Shimelba camp, between November 2020 and January 2021.
Following the attack in Afar, Mr. Cheshirkov said that over 4,000 refugees had reached Semera, “where UNHCR together with the Ethiopian Refugees and Returnees Service and other partners are providing immediate support with shelter, relief items, food as well as clean water”.
Another 10,000 refugees are also reported to be living in Afdera town, some 225 kilometres from Semera, the UN official explained. “Others are also believed to have fled towards the towns of Altefa and Dabure, which is further inland.”
Just last month, UNHCR urged the international community to do more to end the fighting in northern Ethiopia after finally reaching Eritrean refugees in Tigray region “scared and struggling to get enough to eat”.
That alert came after air strikes in and near the camps of Mai Aini and Adi Harush, home to more than 25,000 refugees.
“With yet another refugee camp severely impacted, UNHCR remains extremely worried about the safety and wellbeing of thousands of Eritrean refugees caught up in the conflict,” Mr. Cheshirkov said.
“We are extremely worried about those that are cut off from aid and have not been accounted for so far. What is important, and we've made this call in other contexts, we make it here again: we need to see an end of hostilities. Hostilities must cease and humanitarian access must be provided so that we can be there and help the people who have urgent needs.”
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence on deadly attacks by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan
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Edited News | OCHA , OHCHR , UNITED NATIONS , WFP , WHO
Gaza: Famine “irrefutably” confirmed, UN humanitarians unite in plea for aid access
Famine has been confirmed in Gaza Governorate by the world’s top authority on food security and will spread further within the Strip unless fighting stops and much more aid is allowed in, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence on the eighth anniversary of military assault on the Rohingya in Myanmar
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence on the declared famine in Gaza Governorate
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Edited News , Statements , Images , Conferences | HRC , OCHA , UNOG
A record 383 aid workers were killed last year with hundreds more wounded, kidnapped and detained, the UN’s top aid official said on Tuesday in a call for accountability, at a solemn ceremony in Geneva to mark World Humanitarian Day.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan made the following statement at today’s biweekly press briefing in Geneva:
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Edited News | OHCHR
“In Gaza, the Israeli army has intensified its attacks in the north of the strip,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told the biweekly press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
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Edited News | OHCHR , OCHA
Gaza: Aid insufficient to avert ‘widespread starvation’ as Israeli military ramp-up forces more people to flee
The small trickle of aid entering Gaza is totally insufficient to alleviate starvation and displacement in the Strip, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
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Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Hospitals continue to overflow with people injured while seeking food - WHO
As besieged Palestinian civilians face widespread malnutrition and starvation, hospitals in the Strip are increasingly overwhelmed by the influx of victims of shootings and other injuries at food distribution areas, warns the World Health Organization.
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Edited News | UNHCR , WHO , UNMAS
Urgent help is needed to halt a deadly cholera outbreak that is sweeping across Sudan, UN agencies said on Friday, while warning that communities continue to be terrorized by parties to the conflict even as they flee violence.
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Press Conferences , Edited News , Images | UNEP
Negotiations got under way at UN Geneva on Tuesday to agree on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution, with delegates from nearly 180 countries attending.
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Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
Gaza: Hundreds of trucks per day of free aid needed “for months”, in addition to commercial supplies - OCHA
Despite the tactical pauses Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered Gaza remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and UN trucks continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.