Qatar Charity provides relief aid for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan areas

QATAR Charity (QC) carried out the first relief effort to shelter Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region to Sudan. Qatar Charity’s field teams have provided emergency shelter assistance to refugees under difficult conditions at the Umm Rakobeh camp in Qallabat, eastern Sudan.

The relief aid included 100 large tents and 2,600 blankets in the first phase of the intervention, which will continue in the near future. Abdul Hafeez Muhammad Khalil, representative of the Commission for Refugees Sudan and Director of Gadaref Housing, praised Qatar Charity’s rapid response and emergency shelter assistance to refugees at a time when it is difficult to build temporary housing units for large numbers of families who have crossed into Gedaref.

Khalil thanked the people of Qatar and Qatar Charity for their quick response, noting that the refugee influx is greater than the capacity of the central government and the state. He also added that the number of refugees who had arrived in Sudan until last Tuesday afternoon had reached 41,487.

Hussein Karmash, director of Qatar Charity’s Sudan Office, said that Qatar Charity has always been at the forefront of international relief organisations by providing emergency shelter and food assistance to the needy in many humanitarian emergencies such as the current Ethiopian refugee crisis.

Refugees need more urgent assistance in the areas of water, environmental health and medical services, said Abbas Idris Muhammad, executive director of the Eastern Qallabat Region in Gedaref State, which has refugee camps.

He applauded Qatar Charity for extending the assistance, hoping for continued support to overcome this humanitarian ordeal.

Many Ethiopian families and refugee women expressed their delight at the urgent Qatari support that provided tents and blankets to warm them in winter.

Qatar Charity’s intervention came after the United Nations reported that the number of Ethiopian refugees fleeing to Sudan was 40,000, while the number is expected to rise to 200,000 within six months. Meanwhile the Sudanese authorities have announced that the number of Ethiopian refugees crossing the Sudanese territory is greater than their capacity.