OWN CORRESPONDENT, Khartoum | Saturday 3.45pm.
SUDAN’S Kassala state, bordering Eritrea, has distributed its entire strategic food stock to Eritrean refugees fleeing the war with Ethiopia, the regional governor said on Saturday.
According to a report by Akhbar Al-Youm daily, the number of Eritrean refugees fleeing into Sudan had reached 85000 by Friday with the influx continuing at a rate of 100-150 per hour.
Kassala Governor Ibrahim Mahoud Hamid said extra food has been despatched from Khartoum to new refugee camps and that citizens were offering daily food donations. “But the situation is beyond the state’s resources,” he said.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Sudanese government’s Refugees Commission have pledged immediate food assistance, Hamid said, adding that representatives of the organisations toured the camps on Friday.
UNHCR has said that according to different sources between 6000 and 20000 Eritrean refugees fled their country on Thursday to Sudan after the fall of the southwestern town of Barentu to Ethiopian forces.
Both Hamid and visiting junior Interior Minister Ahmed Mohamed al-Aas renewed an appeal for international aid, Akhbar Al-Youm reported.
Aas said more refugees are expected to arrive in Kassala on Saturday and Sunday. — AFP