Hamdayet: The United Nations refugee agency said that about 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region into neighbouring Sudan, and it is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary.
The Sudan representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) also said that more than 20,000 people had crossed the river Tekeze from Ethiopia and arrived at the border region on Hamdayet.
Ethiopia’s government has been fighting the Tigray regional forces since a November 4 attack on a military base there.
Each side regards the other as illegal, the result of a falling-out between Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray leaders who once dominated the country’s ruling coalition.
With communications to the region severed, no one knows how many people have been killed, and verifying either side’s claims is challenging.
Food, fuel and medical supplies are running desperately short in the Tigray region.
Roads are blocked and airports closed.
AP
