UN plans to relocate South Sudan refugees in Ethiopia

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, says it is continuing to look for land to relocate refugees in Ethiopia who have been displaced by fighting that began in South Sudan in 2013.

The agency said it started the relocation this week of more than 50,000 South Sudanese refugees from flood-prone areas ahead of the rainy season, which is expected to start in late April.

Listen to the report by correspondent Peter Kenny: 

“The refugees are moved from the Leitchuor and Nip Nip refugee camps in the Gambella region, western Ethiopia.  Last year, in August, both camps were severely hit by flood waters during unusually heavy seasonal rains, which caused the Baro river to burst its banks,” said UNHCR Spokesperson Karin de Gruijl.

Nearly 52,000 refugees from flood-prone areas in the two camps will be relocated, but finding the land with the right conditions to set up another refugee camp has been a huge challenge and more land is still needed to accommodate new arrivals from South Sudan.

“Some 2 million people have been uprooted by violence including 1.5 million people  internally displaced in the country and more than half a million across the border into neighbouring countries, most of them to Ethiopia,” said De Gruijl.

Ethiopia is Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country with more than 670,000, mainly from Somalia, followed by South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea.