Ethiopia: UNHCR launches relocation of South Sudanese refugees

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

May 11, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun relocating thousands of South Sudanese refugees from flood-prone areas in Ethiopia’s Gambella region to a newly constructed refugee camp.

South Sudanese children who fled the country’s latest outbreak of violence gather at a refugee camp in Gambella, Ethiopia (Photo: Elissa Jobson/The Guardian)

The UNHCR is conducting the much awaited relocation operation in collaboration with the UN refugee agency’s local partner, the Administration for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA).

In a statement issued on Monday and extended to Sudan Tribune, over 4,000 refugees have been relocated from the flood-affected Liet-chuor and Nip-Nip camps near the border with South Sudan to the newly established Jewi camp, only 18 kilometres away from the Gambella regional capital, Gambella town, in western Ethiopia.

The refugees were transferred to the new camp during the last three days with an additional convoy of buses carrying some 1,680 people on their way to Jewi camp.

“The relocation exercise to Jewi reefugee camp was launched on Friday, 8 May with the first convoy of 1,376 refugees arriving in the new camp,” said the statement from the UNHCR-Ethiopia.

“Over the weekend, more than 4,200 refugees had been relocated from flood-prone Liet-chuor and Nip-Nip camps,” it says.

The UNHCR head of sub-office, Angele Djohossou, and the ARRA zonal coordinator, Teferi Bekele, welcomed the first batch of refugees to Jewi camp and assured them of protection and better humanitarian services.

Djohossou commended all partners for ensuring that protection and essential services such as shelter, medical care, water and sanitation were in place for the relocating refugees.

“We are sincerely thankful to the government of Ethiopia and to all donors for making the launch of relocation to Jewi camp a reality,” she said.

UNHCR said relocating refugees from flood-prone areas had been fraught with challenges key of which was identifying a suitable site.

Jewi camp has a capacity of about 50,000 refugees. It will accommodate about 48,000 refugees from the low land Liet-chuor camp, which was established in January 2014, but became flooded last August together with Nip Nip camp.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is facilitating convoy movement which will now focus on relocating refugees to better suitable locations within Gambella region.

WFP is also providing the refugees high energy biscuits and water during the journey and other basic assistance up on arrival.

There are over 200,000 South Sudanese refugees in various camps in Ethiopia, who are

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Migration organization begins evacuation flights from Yemen

Photo- by IOM- Evacuation of third country nationals (TCNs) out of Sana’a, Yemen on 12 April paving the way for continuing the evacuations of more than 16,000 TCNs who are stranded in Yemen. © IOM 2015

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched first flight on Sunday April 12, 2015 to evacuate third country nationals (TCNs) out of Sana’a, Yemen.

The operation was a success and paves the way for continuing the evacuations of more than 16,000 third country nationals who are stranded in Yemen. IOM has received requests from 38 countries to evacuate their nationals out of Yemen.

The first flight required multiple and complex approvals and logistical arrangements. This followed more than a week of efforts coordinating the participation of several governments in the region, which facilitated and allowed the flight clearance and departure on Sunday from Sana’a to Khartoum in Sudan.

Saba Malme, Operations Coordinator for IOM Yemen, reported Sunday that some of the evacuees leaving on this initial flight had been waiting for several days at the airport in Sanaa.

"Hopefully we'll be a little more organized tomorrow, when we do our next flight," Malme said. He explained that a‎bout two dozen TCNs whose names had been cleared for evacuation failed to arrive at the airport. "We tried to contact them, without success," he said.

The IOM chartered plane that left Sana’a today landed in Khartoum shortly after 3:00 pm local time. The passenger roster included nationals from Sudan, Ethiopia, USA, several Europeans, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Syria, Iraq and Indonesia.

"With this launching of the humanitarian bridge between Sana’a and Khartoum, the Sudanese government has helped IOM in a very complicated humanitarian operation," said Mario Lito Malanca, IOM's Sudan Chief of Mission. "IOM will continue to work with Sudan ‎to address the needs of all migrants impacted by the conflict in Yemen."

IOM has been inundated with calls from migrants, private citizens and family members of people believed to be stranded in Yemen. IOM has identified about 16,000 persons who urgently need international travel assistance, of whom some 5,000 are believed to be ready to travel immediately.  Additionally, 38 different governments have reached IOM to discuss evacuating their nationals from Yemen.

“We have negotiated with both the Sudanese and Ethiopian Governments to allow IOM to set up a humanitarian air bridge,” said Mohammed Abdiker, Director of IOM’s Department of Operations and Emergencies. “We hope to have by next week several rotations between Khartoum and Sana’a daily. We also intend to start another round of rotations between Sana’a and Addis Ababa.”

The IOM flight also evacuated stranded Yemeni travelers who found themselves waiting in different airports and urgently needing international travel assistance. These stranded travelers are those who were travelling for medical, business and other reasons and wish to return to Yemen. 

Yesterday’s flight originated out of Amman and took the Yemeni stranded travelers who signed a declaration to the effect that they wanted to return to Yemen voluntarily.

IOM intends to continue the evacuation operations until all TCNs requesting assistance are provided with the necessary support. "We thank all the authorities who provided the access and support IOM needed to carry out this first evacuation," said Abdiker.

IOM last week appealed for funding to support its evacuation operations, as well as its humanitarian assistance programme inside Yemen. IOM’s initial appeal was for USD 10 million and this amount is expected to significantly increase to cover the demand and expected caseload of evacuations.  

Source: newbusinessethiopia.com