Ethiopia to repatrate 28,500 Sudanese refugees home
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
January 20,2008 (GAMBELLA) — Some 28,500 Sudanese refugees who were displaced by the civil war are going to be repatriated this year, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs disclosed.
Gambella branch office head with the administration, Estifanos Gebremedhin said,the refugees to be repatriated are sheltered in Gambella and Benshangul-Gumuz states.
Preparations have been underway to return the refugees living in four refugee camps by land and air, he said.
The repatriation is being implemented in accordance with the tripartite agreement reached among the Sudan and Ethiopian governments as well as UNHCR, the head indicated.
According to him, there is a plan to close the Bonga and Dima refugee camps at the end of 2008.
Some 20,417 Sudanese refugees have voluntarily returned home in the just concluded year and the Yarenja refugee camp was closed, he recalled.
(ST)
Gatbentiu
Ethiopia to repatrate 28,500 Sudanese refugees home
Once a refugee in Kakuma, Kenya.
Its really very nice to me,to hear that my fellow Sudanese who were despersed by the conflict to many part of the world are returning home one by one day and night.How I wish that all the Sudanese in diaspora can return home and start building their own and only belove mother(Sudan).Remember if you are in refugee camp your place here at home will never be filled until you come home and filled yourself.
Any way home is defined as “where we belong”.
It’s really good news to all of us here in Sudan to hear that refugees are returning home.there is nothing to wait for in refugee camp,if its school, Education in whole of Suothern Sudan is free of charge from A B C untill Secondard and Unversity level.
Please brothers,sisters and fathers,what are you doing in refuge when everthing including Education and the peace which we all yawn for are all here?
the writer can be reached at:[email protected]