ERITREA-SUDAN: More than 20,000 refugees repatriated

NAIROBI, 3 July (IRIN) - Another 1,500 Eritreans left in a convoy of trucks from refugee camps in eastern Sudan, in a UNHCR operation that has seen more than 20,000 people repatriated to Eritrea since 12 May. A UNHCR statement said on Tuesday that a target figure had been reached for repatriation before the onset of the rainy seasons, which will slow down the operation and possibly suspend it from hard-to-reach sites.

"To beat the weather and get more returnees home in time for the planting season, UNHCR will operate several additional convoys before heavy rains expected to start in mid-July make many roads in the area impassable." Such conditions are likely to last until the beginning of October.

The statement said those repatriated on Tuesday were from Wad Sherife, Gulsa and Lafa camps in Sudan. The majority of the 569 returning families were from Wad Sherife camp and had been living in exile for decades, UNHCR said. Refugees in Gulsa and Lafa fled to Sudan last year during the Ethiopia-Eritrea border conflict. UNHCR said it would begin on Wednesday an information campaign and start registration for repatriation for Eritrean refugees living in Port Sudan.

A ship would be used to repatriate Eritreans by sea from Port Sudan to the Eritrean town of Masawa while rains slow overland operations, UNHCR said. There are around 4,000 Eritrean refugees living in camps in Port Sudan, with several times that number in the town itself, according to government figures.