Aid agencies sound warning as Ethiopians flee to Sudan

THOUSANDS of Ethiopians are fleeing across the border into Sudan as aid agencies warn of a “refugee emergency” linked to the intensifying conflict in the northern Tigray region.

Authorities in Sudan said they were expecting up to 200,000 refugees to enter the country, a week after Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister launched an invasion of the semi-autonomous region.

At least 10,000 have travelled into Sudan so far, including 7,000 in the past two days, according to the UN. Tigray borders Eritrea and Sudan, and the escalating conflict has prompted fears of a drawn- out, full-scale civil war which could engulf the region.

“There are l ots of children and women,” Al-sir Khalid, who heads the refugee agency in Sudan’s Kassala provinceon the border, told The Associated Press. “They are arriving very tired and exhausted. They are hungry and thirsty since they have walked long distances on rugged terrain.” Hundreds are feared dead amid heavy fighting and airstrikes.

Yesterday, Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister, said Ethiopia’s military had defeated Tigrayan forces. “The western region of Tigray has been liberated,” he tweeted in Amharic. “In the liberated areas, the army i s now providing humanitarian assistance and services.”

His claims surrounding the status of the conflict were impossible to verify, as internet, electricity and phone lines have been down and roads blocked around the region. Aid agencies have warned they are unable to access the region to provide emergency food and medical supplies.

The dramatic escalation came after months of growing tensions between Abiy’s federal government in Addis Ababa and Tigray’s ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The TPLF declared a state of emergency in the region against an “invasion by outsiders”, according to Tigray TV.

The federal government claims it is trying to liberate the region from the TPLF, which it has accused of atrocities, and that the Tigrayan leaders are trying to destabilise the government and incite violence amongst the country’s array of ethnicities. The TPLF dominated politics for nearly three decades before Abiy came to power in 2018.