DATE=5/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N / ERITREA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262558
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations refugee agency, U-N-H-C-R,
says thousands of Eritreans are fleeing to neighboring
Sudan to escape renewed fighting with Ethiopia. Lisa
Schlein in Geneva reports the refugee agency says
between six-thousand and 20-thousand Eritreans crossed
into Sudan on Thursday alone.
TEXT: The U-N refugee agency says its staff members
from eastern Sudan and the capital, Khartoum, are at
the border area now, trying to get a more accurate
count of the number of Eritreans coming across.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman Ron Redmond says aid workers are
directing new arrivals to existing refugee camps for
Eritreans. The agency already is assisting about 160-
thousand Eritreans in 12 camps. Most of them have
been there for the past 25 years.
Mr. Redmond says new arrivals reportedly are coming
from the area of Tessenei, adjacent to the Sudanese
border.
/// REDMOND ACT ONE ///
Among the arrivals are Eritrean soldiers, who
are being disarmed by the Sudanese army. U-N-H-
C-R staff and humanitarian assistance, both food
and non-food items, have already been pre-
positioned along that border, because we have
been preparing for a repatriation of Eritreans
back to Eritrea. Obviously, that's on hold.
/// END ACT ///
U-N-H-C-R has a small presence in Eritrea, because it
has been preparing for repatriation. But Mr. Redmond
says the agency now is redirecting its efforts toward
protecting and assisting the new arrivals in Sudan.
He says U-N-H-C-R will distribute humanitarian aid to
Eritreans who have been made homeless by the war.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program is appealing for 12-
million U-S dollars to help about 330-thousand people
inside Eritrea who have been displaced by the war.
The agency says this is just an initial appeal because
it believes the number of displaced people is likely
to be much higher. The agency says it will fly
supplies into the region this weekend.
W-F-P spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says this
latest crisis is overshadowing efforts to aid people
affected by drought.
/// BERTHIAUME ACT ///
Obviously, the urgency right now is on those
displaced people, those new people who have been
displaced by the renewal of the fighting. The
emergency is there now. We have to put our
priority there. But, that doesn't mean that
meanwhile we're not thinking of the drought
victims.
/// END ACT ///
The United Nations estimates about 16-million people
are at risk of famine from drought in the Horn of
Africa. Ms. Berthiaume says drought victims also are
among the Eritreans newly displaced by the war.
(Signed)
NEB/LS/JWH/WTW
19-May-2000 09:11 AM EDT (19-May-2000 1311 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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