According to an AFP correspondent, 40 former peacekeepers from Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray province landed in eastern Sudan on Sunday to seek shelter.
More than 500 UN peacekeepers stationed in the disputed Abyei region between Sudan and South Sudan requested asylum in Khartoum last month, citing fears for their safety if they returned home.
Hundreds of Ethiopian peacekeepers requested asylum after their deployment in Abyei ended on Sunday, according to a Sudanese refugee agency spokesman.
“Asylum seekers will continue to arrive everyday until they are all relocated,” added the official, who requested anonymity.
The ex-peacekeepers who arrived on Sunday were brought to the Um Gargour refugee camp in eastern Sudan, according to an AFP correspondent.
Since South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011, the Abyei area has been contested.
In that same year, the United Nations launched a peacekeeping mission, which has since sent 4,000 Ethiopian peacekeepers to the region.
Ethiopia’s defense ministry claimed last month that the peacekeepers from Tigray who refused to return were victims of insurgent “propaganda.”
However, all Tigrayan peacekeepers interviewed by AFP expressed concern for their safety, with one senior officer claiming that other returnees in Ethiopia had been detained or killed.
The battle in northern Ethiopia began in November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dispatched soldiers to Tigray in response to rebel attacks on army barracks, according to him.
According to the UN, over 120 Tigrayan ex-peacekeepers stationed in Darfur sought shelter in Sudan last year.
Since the Tigray conflict broke out, Sudan has taken in tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees.
