Calls to rescue 6,000 Sudanese refugees in the Ethiopian forests

Sudanese organisations issued calls to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, to rescue about 6,000 Sudanese refugees stranded in forests in Ethiopia.

The Sudanese Al-Rakoba website said that since the beginning of May, thousands of Sudanese refugees have fled from the Comer camp on the western border of Ethiopia, after coming under attack by gunmen. They then became stranded in a forest amid difficult humanitarian conditions.

The Sudanese organisations said in their statement that among the 6,000 Sudanese refugees, there are 2,133 children, 1,017 women, 1,917 men, 1,135 ill individuals, and 76 people with special needs.

They called on the UNHCR and humanitarian organisations to look into the problems faced by Sudanese refugees, as they spent 22 days inside a forest during which they were deprived of all forms of aid from international, local and voluntary organisations.  They have now almost entirely run out of most of their food and medicine, with whatever remaining food and medicine being left to the children, the elderly, people with special needs and critical cases.

READ: Sudan at ‘imminent risk of famine’, UN aid chiefs warn