UN Refugee Agency Alarmed By Poor Conditions Of Eritrean Refugees In Tigray Camps

The United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) expressed concern on Friday over the conditions of Eritrean refugees held in refugee camps in the Tigray region during a protracted civil conflict in Ethiopia

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2022) The United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) expressed concern on Friday over the conditions of Eritrean refugees held in refugee camps in the Tigray region during a protracted civil conflict in Ethiopia.

Due to a volatile security situation in the country, the UNHCR reportedly could not access Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps for three weeks. After reaching out to the refugees located there, the organization found that they lacked food, medicine, and clean water.

"Refugees told UNHCR of increasing preventable deaths - more than 20 over the last six weeks - linked to the overall decline in conditions, and in particular the lack of medicine and health services. The clinics in the camps have been essentially closed since early January when they finally completely ran out of medicine," the UNHCR said in a statement.

The UNHCR stressed that Eritrean refugees have been deprived of basic services for several months, with the crisis worsening recently after food and water reserves were exhausted and new supplies were cut off.

"If food, medicine, fuel and other supplies cannot be immediately brought in, and if we continue to be unable to relocate refugees out of harm's way to where we can provide them with life-saving assistance, more refugees will die," the UNHCR warned, pointing out that refugees may soon suffer from hunger and water-borne diseases caused by the lack of clean water.

According to the UNHCR estimates, around 25,000 refugees remain in the Tigray camps. The organization attempted to negotiate a ceasefire to secure refugees' relocation to a new site provided by the government in the neighboring Amhara region, but failed.

Ethiopia has been struggling with a violent internal conflict since November 2020, when the central government accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front of attacking its military base and launched an anti-terrorist operation in the region. The ongoing conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions of people, and caused a dire humanitarian crisis across the country.