UNHCR chief visits Ethiopian refugee camp in Sudan

(28 Nov 2020) The UN's top official for refugees said the government of Sudan needs 150 million US dollars in aid to cope with thousands of people who have fled Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region into neighboring Sudan. Speaking at the swelling Umm Rakouba refugee camp, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said even though the number of arriving refugees has declined but there are still up to 600 people arriving in Sudan every day. "The other thing that is difficult is that there is no communication even for people who are here and whose relatives are back in Tigray...so I hope that those communications will be restored quickly because it is difficult to verify reports without presence, humanitarian access," he added. His comments came as the Ethiopian military began an offensive in the Tigray regional capital in its quest to arrest the region’s defiant leaders. The Tigray region has been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since Nov. 4, when new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced a military offensive in response to a the Tigray People’s Liberation Front attack on a military base. Humanitarians have said at least hundreds of people have been killed. The fighting threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa. With transport links cut, food and other supplies are running out in Tigray, home to 6 million people, and the United Nations has asked for immediate and unimpeded access for aid. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...