Nearly 17,000 Eritreans repatriate from Sudan: UN refugee agency
4 August -- Dry weather this week has aided the return of Eritrean refugees from the Sudan, bringing the total number of returnees to 16,746, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.
Speaking to correspondents in Geneva, spokesman Ron Redmond said that the rains in Sudan's eastern state of Kassala had subsided, making it easier for heavily loaded trucks to travel. As of yesterday, a total of 4,844 families - mainly farmers who want to plant crops before the rainy season is over -- have returned to areas judged safe in south-western Eritrea, including Tesseney, Guluj, Talatasher, Ghergef and Telebdia.
UNHCR convoys are scheduled to leave today from Lafa and Gulsa, although the agency expects that a certain number of people will now wait a little longer before they return, possibly until the end of the rainy season. "This is especially true for single mothers with children, people coming from Om Hajer and other parts of southern Eritrea still occupied by Ethiopian troops, or people who are concerned about security," the spokesman said, adding that UNHCR would continue to provide transportation as long as the roads remained passable.
Some 90,000 Eritreans fled to Sudan after fighting erupted in mid-May between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
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