Ethiopia: Sudanese refugees flee camps in Amhara region amid insecurity
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00:00150,000 Sudanese fled to neighbouring Ethiopia.
00:03Half of them live in camps in the Hamara region,
00:06where they find themselves in the middle of another conflict,
00:09the war between the Amhara militia and the federal forces.
00:13With the growing insecurity,
00:14a thousand refugees are now asking to be moved to another country.
00:19Clotilde Hazard explains.
00:22For the past 10 days now,
00:23more than a thousand Sudanese refugees have been sleeping
00:28on the side of a road with no protection and very little means of subsistence.
00:34They left the camp where they were sheltered by the United Nations Refugee Agency
00:39because of the numerous attacks and thefts perpetrated by civilians living in the area.
00:47Many are armed and belong to militias fighting
00:51in the civil war that has been raging in the region for the past year.
00:56At the end of April, a refugee was seriously shot by a thief in a market.
01:01He is still in hospital in Gondar.
01:04This incident was a wake-up call for the refugees who decided to leave their camp in protest.
01:11The Ethiopian authorities banned journalists from entering the area.
01:16But Mohamed Hamed, one of the Sudanese refugees,
01:20was able to send me a video while answering my questions.
01:25We gave the local authorities and the UNHCR 14 days to sort out our problem,
01:33but they did not respond.
01:35That is why we left the camp.
01:37And we were walking in the road, like, 14 metres eastern from the site of the camp.
01:44We have been stopped by the federal police, not allowing us to go forward.
01:50The refugees are therefore stranded in an area that is difficult to access and dangerous.
01:56The UNHCR is concerned about the security situation
02:00and is working with the Ethiopian government to resolve the problem.
02:04More frequent police patrols are supposed to take place
02:08to protect these refugees who have already been badly affected by the conflict in Sudan.