At least 834 returnees, mostly women, children, and elderly groups, who fled to Ethiopia have arrived in Maban County, Upper Nile State, the Acting Commissioner of Maban County has revealed.

Moamen Khader said the returnees opted for home following aggressive forces’ who attacked refugee camps in Ethiopia.

“The returnees from the Yabus area were transferred to the county headquarters and sheltered in schools.

“Some of them live under trees. As a government, we provided them with aid in the form of corn and fish, while the Human Development Council (HDC) provided non-food aid, ”  Khader was quoted saying by a local news outlet.

The City Review could not reach the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management for comments as the number of the docket minister, Peter Mayen, was not going through by the press time.

In November last year, 59 students from Bahir Dar and Gondar universities in the Ethiopian war-torn region of Amhara, sought refuge at the South Sudan Embassy, in Addis Ababa, after their schools were closed down due to armed confrontations between the Ethiopian army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces.

Northern Ethiopia has been experiencing conflicts since November 2020, when the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali, sent troops into Tigray after accusing the region’s ruling party, the TPLF, of attacking the federal army.

Armed confrontations between the rival forces and their allies have claimed thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes.

The United Nations has referred to the whole situation as a de facto blockade that prevents life-saving medicine and food from reaching hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.

According to the World Bank, Ethiopia currently hosts 628,585 refugees and asylum seekers from all over Africa, with South Sudanese accounting for nearly half of that total, with recent figures putting the figure at 297,918.