Ethiopia plans to shutter a camp for Eritrean refugees and resettle thousands of its inhabitants in other camps that the UN considers already full, an official says, despite concerns this could make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Hitsats camp is one of four in the northern Tigray region that together house nearly 100,000 people from Eritrea, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, out of more than 170,000 Eritrean refugees nationwide.
In early March, Ethiopian officials informed UNHCR they intended to close Hitsats as part of a consolidation scheme, but it was delayed after Ethiopia confirmed its first COVID-19 cases in mid-March.
Yet preparations for the closure have continued, and Eyob Awoke, deputy director general of Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs, says that relocations could begin by the end of April.
— AFP
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