Ethiopia, Sudan to Identify Refugees amid Mai-Kadra Massacre

Addis Ababa November 30/2020 (ENA) Ethiopia and Sudan will collaborate to identify who's who among the refugees crossing the two nations border amid the Mai-Kadra massacre, State of Emergency Spokesperson Redwan Hussien said.

Redwan told Reuters today that as a large part of Tigray, including Mekelle, is free “there is no need to move to another country because we can still create a capacity to ushering those who are moving from certain conflict areas to the areas a little bit calmer.”  

Praising Sudan for welcoming the refugees, the spokesperson said “we are grateful that Sudan allowed our citizens to cross their border; but the fear is that usually when there is a conflict it is women, children and elders who would try to save their lives. But in this particular case, women are less, children are less. It is only youth.”

Redwan explained that the massacre of “Mai-Kadra is now found out to have been orchestrated by a youth wing other than the militia and special forces who were encouraging them to carry out the massacre. That was proved by Amnesty International and our independent Human Rights Commission. ”

Noting that the youth wing is a separate and an informal entity, he said it could be these youth partly that carried out the massacre. “We cannot blame everybody, but there is a possibility that there are also those murderers who have crossed to Sudan,” the spokesperson added.

In the cities and towns where these massacres have occurred, people have begun speaking out and coming up with names of suspects which are in refugee camps in Sudan, he revealed, adding that “we are going to collaborate with Sudan to identify who is who.”

Ethiopia has been accommodating nearly a million refugees from all the surrounding countries, namely from Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia, among others.

Pointing out the country's rich experience on handling refugees and internally displaced people, Redwan said “it is easier for us. We are used to this for years; and we have been also relocating about 4 million internally displaced people for the past two and half years.”