Ethiopian militiamen abduct two Sudanese farmers in fresh cross border raid

February 25, 2021 (GADAREF ) – Armed Ethiopian militias carried out a fresh cross border attack and abducted two Sudanese farmers after looting their harvested corn, in the second incident of its kind this week.

The attack occurred 10 km from the Ethiopian border, in the Al-Fashaga area.

The farmers confirmed to the Sudan Tribune that the militias looted a thousand sacks of corn and twenty bags of sesame crop, along with a harvesting machine.

Abdel Samei Obaid, a farmer from the attacked area called on the Sudanese army to urgently intervene and protect Sudanese farmers from the continuous attacks and looting operations that lasted for more than five days.

Obaid added that the army’s delayed intervention increased the militia’s ambitions and encouraged the looting operations. He pointed out that more than 165,000 acres of agricultural areas may be attacked as 200 farmers risk being killed by the Ethiopian Amhara gangs.

In another development related to another Sudan’s border area in the Blue Nile State, the UNHCR reported that Ethiopian refugees from the Benishangul Gumuz region continue to arrive in Sudan.

“As of the end of February 2021, the estimated figure for the asylum seekers is about 7,000 with CoR and UNHCR having verified nearly 3,000 of them and the verification exercise ongoing,” said the UN refugee agency.

Ethiopian from the ethnic Amharas, Oromos, and Shinasha have started fleeing to Sudan when armed men from the local Gumuz ethnic group killed over 200 people in the village of Bekoji by the end of 2020.

Over 62,000 refugees from the Tigray region have crossed to eastern Sudan states of Kassala and Gedaref to escape attacks by the Ethiopian army and Amhara militiamen.

(ST)