Nearly 50,000 Sudanese have fled the war in Ethiopia, with half of them housed in camps in the Amhara region. They find themselves caught in another conflict: the war between local militias and federal forces that has been ongoing for over a year now. A thousand refugees decided to leave the Awulala camp, located on the border with Sudan, to protest against the increasing insecurity.
Mohamed Hamed spent four months in the Awulala camp. He describes deplorable living conditions on unhealthy farmland, due to the lack of medical care, but especially due to the increasingly frequent armed attacks.
“We had our phones stolen at gunpoint,” recounts Mohamed Hamed. “People enter the camp with their weapons at night. Several refugees have been kidnapped; they come to get people even in their tents. Here, the inhabitants are already in a civil war among themselves, so they are all armed.”
In late April, a refugee was shot by a thief at a market. Still in critical condition, he is hospitalized in Gondar. After this incident, the refugees decided to leave their camp in protest before being blocked by federal forces. For several days now, they have been sleeping by the side of a road without food or water, a few kilometers from the site where they refuse to return.
“Instead of dying in the darkness of our tents, killed by thieves, insects, snakes, and scorpions, we prefer to die in the light before the whole world so that it sees how much we suffer,” declares the Sudanese refugee.
The United Nations Refugee Agency expresses concern about the security situation and is working with the Ethiopian government to address the issue. More frequent police patrols are to be conducted to protect these refugees, who have already been severely affected by the conflict in Sudan.