Dear John,

In the past two weeks alarming reports have come out of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where armed conflict has forced tens of thousands of people to flee into Sudan. Those living inside the region face the prospect of further fighting and a lack of food, fuel and power.

We are very worried about the local populations, the refugees and our staff who remain there. Communication blackouts make access and contact incredibly difficult. Meanwhile, in Sudan, our teams are working under very difficult circumstances, receiving refugees at the border. I urgently want to update you on what we know.

The situation is unravelling into a full-scale humanitarian crisis and we have two immediate concerns:

1. More than 33,000 Ethiopian people have already crossed the border to Sudan in less than 10 days, with around 2-3,000 more arriving daily. More than half of them are women and children. Refugees arrive exhausted and scared. Our colleagues met teachers, nurses, office workers, farmers and students who were completely caught by surprise when the fighting erupted. They fled with nothing except what they had with them and had to walk for hours and days and cross a river to seek safety in Sudan. With fighting ongoingwe fear a major outflow in the days to come.
2. Within Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the number of internally displaced people is growing by the day. We are concerned about the safety and security of all civilians in the region, including the 100,000 Eritrean refugees who have already lost their homes once, and are living in four camps there amidst the conflict.. With all the challenges of power shortages and communication blackouts, along with a scarcity of food and fuel, we must ensure refugees and other displaced people have access to basic services and protection.

We urgently need your support to provide emergency shelter, clean water, food and medical aid to people like Gannite, a refugee woman who just fled Ethiopia to Sudan.

“We did not know what was going on when we heard the gun shots." Gannite said. "Many people were killed – we could see 10, twenty bodies lying on the ground. That’s when we decided to leave. I walked until my legs were injured and bleeding. I thank God that we are safe here and we have something to eat.”

With your help, UNHCR and its partners are supporting the Sudanese government to respond to this new emergency. We are distributing lifesaving items such as blankets, jerry cans, face masks and soap upon arrival at border areas, we are identifying the most vulnerable in need of specific help, and we have already relocated over 5,000 refugees to the newly established Um Raquba site. We have also identified a second site and are rushing to provide shelter kits for refugees to build their own family shelters. But the numbers keep growing and much more needs to be done.

We need your support to help us act now.

Astrid van Genderen Stort
UNHCR Head of Emergencies and Communications, PSP