Ethiopian soldiers seek asylum in Sudan

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Former Ethiopian soldiers in the United Nations and African Union Peacekeeping Force (UNAMID) said that they sought asylum in Sudan for fear of harm if they returned to their country because of their affiliation with the Tigray region, which is hostile to the Ethiopian government.

In Umm al-Raqrouq camp in the state of Gadaref in eastern Sudan, where Ethiopian soldiers who refused to return to their country reside, the leader of the group that requested asylum, Hulk Hokus (47 years), said that he had decided not to return to Ethiopia “because of the persecution and ethnic cleansing taking place inside the Tigray region,” accusing the Ethiopian government Responsibility for these practices.

Arqawi Mahari, the forty-year-old officer, confirmed that he did not know the whereabouts of his mother and father, who fled their home in Tigray province after the outbreak of the conflict.

He added, "All the families in Tigray have been displaced and I do not know the whereabouts of my father and mother, and there have been many rapes and atrocities."

The Tigray region, located in northern Ethiopia, is the scene of a conflict that broke out in early November 2020 between the Ethiopian army and the so-called "Tigray People's Liberation Front", which witnessed many violations against the civilian population.

And last week, the Director of the World Health Organization denounced the "horrific situation in Tigray, where many die from hunger and rape is increasing."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military campaign on Tigray in November to topple the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, which had dominated the region.

He said that the attack was in response to attacks launched by the front on army camps.

Abiy Ahmed promised to end the war quickly, but after more than six months the fighting continues as world leaders warn of an impending humanitarian disaster.

The United Nations announced that about 120 soldiers from the Ethiopian unit in the UNAMID mission, which included about 830 soldiers, had requested asylum in Sudan, refusing to return to Ethiopia after the mission's mission ended last December.

In the Um Gargour camp as well, Froueni, a 29-year-old soldier, told France Presse: "We are from the Tigray tribe, so they were persecuting us and telling us you are agents of the Tigrayan army and if I came back to Ethiopia they would kill me or torture me so I chose to seek asylum in Sudan."

The attack by the Ethiopian government forces on the Tigray region has resulted in about 60,000 people taking refuge in Sudan, and the Umm Gargour camp is the oldest camp in eastern Sudan and has been hosting Eritrean refugees for more than fifty years since its establishment in 1970.

The former soldiers live in three brick housing complexes that were previously used as administrative buildings, while Eritrean refugees live in houses built of mud and dry grass.

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