Hundreds Stranded at Sudan-Ethiopia Border as Conflict Flares

Gallabat - Metema border crossing (photo whirled away)

September 3, 2024 (GEDAREF) – More than 700 Sudanese people are stranded on both sides of the Gallabat border crossing between Sudan and Ethiopia as fighting intensifies in nearby Ethiopian regions, authorities in eastern Sudan said on Monday.

Around 400 people are stuck in the Metema Yohannes area inside Ethiopia, while 321 are on the Sudanese side in Gallabat, government sources told Sudan Tribune.

The fighting in Ethiopia’s Amhara region between the military and the Fano militia has also put Sudanese refugees in the area at risk, with the U.N. refugee agency saying on Friday that two Sudanese refugees had been killed by cross-border shelling.

There are 2,652 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, spread across three camps.

The Gedaref state government said it was increasing its military presence along the border, which remains closed to commercial traffic.

Ethiopia has sent military reinforcements to the border area, and the army has been carrying out arrests of Fano leaders and their families in Metema, military sources said.

The fighting in Amhara erupted in early August, shattering a peace deal signed in 2020 that ended a two-year war between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).