Hamdayet Border Reception Centre | |
---|---|
refugee centre | |
Coordinates: 14°16′06″N36°31′54″E / 14.26840°N 36.53175°E | |
Country | Sudan |
Region | Eastern Sudan States Coordinating Council |
State | Kassala State |
Hamdayet Border Reception Centre is a refugee reception centre in eastern Sudan used for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the Tigray War that started in November 2020. [1]
Hamdayet Border Reception Centre is located in a small village Hamdayet within the larger village of Wad Muzammil (Arabic : ود مزمل), which lies between the Setit River (known as Tekezé River in much of Ethiopia) and the Eritrean border, close to Sudan's eastern border with Ethiopia. [2] [3]
Hamdayet administratively lies in Kassala State and is close to el-Gadarif city. Hamdayet is small. As of 2021 [update] , it has no electricity or water supplies, with only one medical clinic, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières. Telephone, television and internet connectivity is weak. The local market is open at 06:00 and closes at 16:00. There are no motels or accommodation. Grass made huts are available for rent. The temperature are extremely hot during the daytime and mild in the evenings.[ citation needed ]
In late November 2020, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited Hamdayet and spoke with refugees there. [4] As of 4 December 2020, 47,000 Ethiopian refugees had arrived in Sudan according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Among these, 11,150 had been transferred from Hamdayet and another border camp, Abderafi, to the Um Rakuba refugee camp 70 km from the Sudanese border. [1]
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012, the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without the support of governments or international organizations.
Kebri Beyah is a city and woreda in Somali Region, Ethiopia. Part of the Kebri Beyah is bordered on the south by the Degehabur Zone, on the southwest by the Fiq Zone, on the northwest by Gursum, on the north by Jijiga and Awbare, on the northeast by Somaliland, and on the east by Harshin. The City administrative center is Kebri Beyah City.
Eritreans are the native inhabitants of Eritrea, as well as the global diaspora of Eritrea. Eritreans constitute several component ethnic groups, some of which are related to ethnic groups that make up the Ethiopian people in neighboring Ethiopia and people groups in other parts of the Horn of Africa. Nine of these component ethnic groups are officially recognized by the Government of Eritrea.
Sudanese refugees are people originating from the country of Sudan, seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and civil wars, as well as environmental changes, namely desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine but also the forced migration of large numbers of the Sudanese population, both inside and outside the country's borders. Given the expansive geographic territory of Sudan, and the regional and ethnic tensions and conflicts, much of the forced migration in Sudan has been internal. Yet, these populations are not immune to similar issues that typically accompany refugeedom, including economic hardship and providing themselves and their families with sustenance and basic needs. With the creation of a South Sudanese state, questions surrounding southern Sudanese IDPs may become questions of South Sudanese refugees.
By January 2011 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that there are 262,900 Sudanese refugees in Chad. The majority of them left Sudan escaping from the violence of the ongoing Darfur crisis, which began in 2003. UNHCR has given the Sudanese refugees shelter in 12 different camps situated along the Chad–Sudan border. The most pressing issues UNHCR has to deal with in the refugee camps in Chad are related to insecurity in the camps,, malnutrition, access to water, HIV and AIDS, and education.
Dolo Airport is an airport serving Dolo, a town in southeastern Ethiopia, close to the border with Somalia.
Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement is a refugee camp in Bweyale in Kiryandongo district Uganda.
South Sudanese refugees are persons originating from the African country of South Sudan, but seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. The world's youngest independent country has a recent and troubled history of prolonged conflicts and ecosystem mismanagement such as overlogging, which has led to desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine, but also the forced migration of large numbers of the population, both inside and outside the country's borders. South Sudan was cited as the largest refugee crisis in 2016, being the world's third largest, followed by Syria and Afghanistan. As of 2022, the UNHCR estimated that there were 2.4 million refugees under its mandate originating from South Sudan, making the country the fifth largest source of refugees.
Events of 2020 in Ethiopia.
The Maaji refugee settlements are three refugee camps located in Adjumani District in the Northern Region of Uganda, established in 1997. In June 2018, there were 41,764 registered refugees, accounting for 10% of the district's total population. It has primarily admitted refugees from the Second Sudanese Civil War and the ongoing South Sudanese Civil War. The settlements have been attacked several times by the Lord's Resistance Army, along with other camps in the region such as the Baratuku refugee settlement.
The Tigray war was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. It was a civil war that was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.
The Mai Kadra massacre was a massacre and ethnic cleansing carried out during the Tigray War on 9–10 November 2020 in the town of Mai Kadra in Welkait in northwestern Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border. Responsibility was attributed to a pro-TPLF youth group and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the EHRC-OHCHR Tigray Investigation, preliminary investigations by Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), and interviews conducted in Mai Kadra by Agence France-Presse. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and EHRC reported that at least 5 Tigrayans were killed in Mai Kadra by Amhara militas such as Fano in retaliation. Tigrayan refugees in Sudan told multiple news outlets that Tigrayans in Mai Kadra were targeted by either Amhara militias, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), or both.
This timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
The spillover of the Tigray War has had an impact on other countries in the surrounding region, particularly in Sudan. This spillover mainly consisted of Ethiopian refugees, more than 50,000 of which have crossed the Ethiopia–Sudan border. There have also been border clashes, mostly between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Ethiopian militias, but the Sudanese government has also claimed ambushes by the Ethiopian National Defense Force have taken place. Most of the fighting centered in Al-Fashaqa, a fertile plain claimed by both Sudan and Ethiopia.
The refoulement of Eritrean refugees consists of the forceful return of Eritrean refugees from Ethiopia back to Eritrea, while international law requires non-refoulement. The New York Times, Europe External Programme with Africa and Human Rights Concern Eritrea claimed that Eritrean refugees were forcefully returned to Eritrea during the Tigray War that started in late November 2020 from the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps. On 2 February 2021, there were 20,000 unaccounted for Eritrean refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees following a visit to Ethiopia.
The Humera massacre was an ethnic mass murder event carried out in November 2020 in the town of Humera in the Tigray Region of northwestern Ethiopia, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including Fano, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).
The Eritrea–Sudan border is 686 km (426 mi) in length and runs from Eritrea and Sudan's tripoint with Ethiopia in the south, to the town of Ras Kasar in the very north of Eritrea. The border has been the site of several tensions, with deportations, border conflicts and colonialism by the United Kingdom and Italy. The border has also seen illegal acts such as human trafficking and hundreds of illegal crossings made by Eritreans. Due to the Tigray War, Sudan saw a surge of Eritrean and Ethiopian civilians cross its border with Eritrea and by 2023 there were nearly 130,000 refugees and civilians confirmed living in the country.
Ethiopian refugees in Sudan are individuals from Ethiopia who have sought asylum in Sudan due to various reasons, including the two-year civil war in the Tigray region and other challenging circumstances in Ethiopia.