Over 5,000 Sudanese repatriated from Ethiopia in 2008
6 hours ago
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — The United Nations refugee agency has repatriated more than 5,000 Sudanese refugees from Ethiopia this year, a government body said on Thursday.
The 5,120 refugees, all from south Sudan, were taken home from a camp in the Gambela region in western Ethiopia, the (Ethiopian) Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) said in a statement.
It said half of the 22,000 refugees in the area would be repatriated by next year.
Since 2006, more than 35,000 Sudanese refugees have returned from Ethiopia following the signing of a peace agreement between the ex-rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army/Movement and the Khartoum government in 2005.
Some two million people died and another six million were displaced in Sudan's 21-year-old conflict that ended with the signing of the 2005 peace deal.