U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2001 - Ethiopia

Ethiopia hosted more than 190,000 refugees at the end of 2000, including about 120,000 from Somalia, more than 70,000 from Sudan, about 3,000 from Eritrea, and 1,000 from Djibouti.

Nearly 40,000 Ethiopians were refugees or asylum seekers at the end of 2000: some 25,000 in Sudan, about 8,000 in Kenya, more than 2,000 in Djibouti, at least 1,000 in Yemen, and nearly 2,000 new Ethiopian asylum applicants in Europe.

An estimated 280,000 Ethiopians were internally displaced at year's end.

Ethiopian authorities deported some 75,000 persons to Eritrea during 1998-2000. The citizenship of some deportees was a matter of dispute. In addition, about 25,000 Ethiopians were deported to Ethiopia from Eritrea during 2000.

About 3,000 Ethiopian refugees who had fled the country in previous years repatriated during 2000, including about 2,000 from Djibouti, and some 1,000 from Sudan.

Border War Ends

A two-year border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea ended dramatically in mid-2000 when Ethiopia launched a successful military offensive into Eritrea. The offensive brought the conflict to an end in June. In December, the two governments signed a formal peace agreement in Algeria.

In accordance with the peace plan, a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed along the long border between the two countries. At year's end, Ethiopian troops still occupied large areas of Eritrea within a buffer zone.

Uprooted Ethiopians

The year began with approximately 300,000 Ethiopians internally displaced near the border because of the war with Eritrea. Most were subsistence farmers.

An additional 15,000 persons in northwest Ethiopia fled their homes in May to escape retaliatory artillery bombardments by the Eritrean army in response to Ethiopia's military offensive. No further new displacement of Ethiopian residents occurred after the two governments agreed to a cease-fire in June.

Approximately 280,000 Ethiopians remained internally displaced at year's end. Most lived in host communities or with relatives in the northern Ethiopia border regions of Tigray and Afar. Tens of thousands of others lived in settlements or dilapidated temporary shelters.

During the two-year war with Eritrea, Ethiopian authorities pursued a "no camp" policy that encouraged displaced Ethiopians to integrate into communities outside of conflict areas. UN agencies supported the policy and provided assistance to the country's uprooted population through the expansion and enhancement of existing host-community services.

Despite a shortage of resources, UN agencies and local authorities made "strategically significant" improvements in education, health, and water systems in communities sheltering displaced families, a UN report stated. UNICEF helped train school teachers living in displaced camps, and provided some 30,000 uprooted children with clothing and educational material.

Education, health, and water systems in northern Ethiopia's conflict areas suffered severe damage, slowing the return of thousands of uprooted families. The Regional Education Bureau in Tigray reported that Eritrean artillery bombardments in three Tigrayan zones destroyed 26 schools and damaged 41 others. Construction of new water systems in the Tigray region "is a prerequisite to the return of many displaced people," a UN funding appeal declared in August.

The presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance also impeded the return of uprooted people and stalled the resumption of economic activities. Landmines killed some 150 civilians in northern Ethiopia during 2000, 75 percent of them children, UNICEF reported.

In June, Eritrean authorities deported an estimated 25,000 persons of Ethiopian descent to Ethiopia. Some sources estimated that far more people were deported to Ethiopia. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the transit and border crossing of one-third of the deportees.

Ethiopian authorities initially housed most deportees in transit camps in the towns of Adwa and Adrigrat in north central Ethiopia. The World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF provided immediate food and other relief assistance to the deportees upon their arrival. Conditions at the transit camps had "largely improved" by October when the arrival of Ethiopians expelled from Eritrea ceased, WFP reported.

UN agencies appealed to donors in August for $30 million to fund rehabilitation and recovery programs for the return and reintegration of all war-displaced Ethiopians. Donor countries provided nearly full funding for food relief – including 30,000 tons of food – but contributed less than 15 percent of the funds needed for non-food assistance.

In December, the World Bank approved $400 million in loans to assist Ethiopia with war recovery programs, including emergency humanitarian needs, infrastructure rehabilitation, and the demobilization and reintegration of war veterans.

Deportations from Ethiopia

Ethiopian authorities deported approximately 75,000 persons to Eritrea during the two-year war, including many who were forced from their homes at night without warning, detained, and expelled to remote areas along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border.

An estimated quarter-million persons of Eritrean descent were living in Ethiopia when the war erupted in 1998. Most had lived their entire lives in Ethiopia, possessed Ethiopian identity documents, and considered themselves Ethiopian citizens of Eritrean heritage.

Citing national security concerns in May 1998, Ethiopian authorities summarily detained and deported Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin. Deportations continued in 1999 and, to a lesser extent, in 2000.

During 2000, Ethiopian authorities allowed the ICRC to monitor the expulsion of approximately 500 Ethiopian residents of Eritrean descent. The Ethiopian government reportedly deported at least hundreds of others during the year without protective monitoring by the ICRC.

Repatriation of Ethiopian Refugees

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians fled their country during the 1974-1991 reign of military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. In 1991, a rebel group known as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front deposed Mengistu, triggering the return of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian refugees.

During the past decade, an estimated 800,000 or more Ethiopian refugees have voluntarily repatriated from Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and other countries.

In September 1999, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) declared that a "fundamental and durable change" had taken place in Ethiopia with the end of the Mengistu regime and that most Ethiopian refugees who fled their country prior to 1991 no longer had a "valid fear of persecution." The UNHCR declaration, which officially took effect in March 2000, effectively withdrew automatic refugee status for Ethiopians who fled before 1991.

Refugees who claimed to have "compelling reasons" for not wanting to return to Ethiopia were supposed to submit to individual screening interviews in asylum countries to determine their legal status.

Djibouti became the first country to complete the UNHCR-assisted repatriation operation. In May, some 2,000 Ethiopian refugees who had fled to Djibouti before 1991 voluntarily repatriated to the Dire Dawa Region of eastern Ethiopia on UNHCR-chartered trains.

In December, some 1,000 long-term Ethiopian refugees living in Sudan repatriated, primarily to the Amhara and Tigray regions of north central Ethiopia. UN financial constraints, the Ethiopia-Eritrea war, and the presence of landmines in expected areas of return impeded further repatriations from Sudan. An estimated 25,000 pre-1991 Ethiopian refugees remained in Sudan at year's end.

Ethiopian returnees received a nine-month food supply from WFP, plastic sheeting, kitchen items, blankets, a small cash transportation allowance, and a reintegration grant equivalent to $95 from UNHCR.

Refugees from Somalia

Somali refugees fled to Ethiopia during 1995-1998 to escape civil war in their own country. Nearly 90 percent of all Somali refugees living in Ethiopia originated from northwest Somalia, known as "Somaliland."

An estimated 120,000 Somali refugees remained in eight long-established camps in northeastern Ethiopia at the end of 2000. The largest camp, Darror, housed some 28,000 refugees. UNHCR planned to close Teferi Ber and Darwanaji camps in 2000, but did not do so because of financial constraints. Unknown thousands of additional Somali refugees lived outside established camps in urban and rural areas in Ethiopia.

During 2000, UNHCR provided camp residents with nutrition, health, and education services. Distribution of food remained a problem because refugee males monopolized the distribution process and reportedly sold food rations intended for individual families. In September, UNHCR, WFP, and the principal Ethiopian government refugee agency, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), introduced a new food system that involved more women in the distribution process.

In early 2000, UNHCR initiated a two-month emergency water delivery operation to assist drought- affected Somali refugee populations. UNHCR also provided technical and financial support to establish refugee camp tree nurseries, and to produce and distribute fuel-efficient cooking stoves.

Approximately 85,000 Somali refugees in Ethiopia had registered with UNHCR by mid-year for eventual repatriation. At least 45,000 voluntarily repatriated with UNHCR assistance during the year, primarily to Somaliland. It is possible that thousands more repatriated without UNHCR assistance.

Refugees who chose to repatriate with assistance received a nine-month food supply from WFP, plastic sheeting, blankets, and a small cash transportation allowance from UNHCR. Several thousand refugees departed Ethiopia in UNHCR-organized convoys. Because of the long distances between transit centers and final destinations, UNHCR provided some Somali refugees with an additional travel allowance to help facilitate their return home.

Refugees from Sudan

Civil war in Sudan has pushed waves of refugees into Ethiopia since the 1980s. The number of Sudanese refugees living in Ethiopia peaked at more than 300,000 in 1991. Although Sudanese refugee numbers have declined in Ethiopia during the past decade, refugee influxes have continued.

Approximately 15,000 new refugees fled from Sudan to western Ethiopia during 2000. More than 70,000 Sudanese refugees remained in Ethiopia at year's end.

The refugees lived in four camps in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia. At year's end, UNHCR was in the process of constructing a fifth camp farther north in the Beneshangul-Gumuz Region of western Ethiopia to accommodate some 5,000 new refugees who fled insecurity in the Blue Nile Region of southern Sudan.

The largest camp, Fugnido, housed some 25,000 people, primarily ethnic Nuer. An additional 12,000 ethnic Nuer refugees lived in Dimma camp. Some 15,000 ethnic Uduk refugees lived in Bonga camp. About 16,000 ethnically mixed refugees resided at Sherkole camp.

Ethnic conflicts caused refugee deaths and cattle thefts in Dimma and other camps. Domestic and sexual violence among refugees was reportedly prevalent. Local authorities regularly detained refugees without trial.

Women and children comprised the majority of camp residents. A joint nutritional survey by ARRA, UNHCR, and WFP in October found "poor coverage of malnourished children through supplementary feeding programs" in all four refugee camps.

Although many refugees had been farmers in Sudan, Ethiopian authorities refused to make more agricultural land available to the refugee population, limiting opportunities for refugees to improve their nutrition through agricultural activities. UNHCR and ARRA provided seeds and farming tools to selected families, but poor land allocation strategies meant that many experienced farmers lacked land, while many inexperienced farmers received land, UNHCR reported.

For part of the year, water shortages plagued Fugnido and Sherkole, home to more than 50 percent of all Sudanese refugees. UNHCR and ARRA provided educational materials and conducted awareness campaigns to address high incidences of HIV/AIDS among refugees and the local population.

Other Refugees

Kenyan refugees fled to Ethiopia in the mid-1990s to escape ethnic conflict in northern Kenya. As 2000 began, some 5,000 Kenyan refugees, mostly herders, lived in two refugee camps along the Ethiopia-Kenya border in Moyale.

UNHCR and the governments of Kenya and Ethiopia signed a tripartite agreement in June to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Kenyan refugees. Nearly all the refugees voluntarily repatriated in December. The returnees traveled for two days to their areas of origin in northeast Kenya in UNHCR-organized convoys.

UNHCR provided the Kenyan returnees with an in-transit food allowance, plastic sheeting, blankets, a transportation allowance equivalent to $25 to reach their areas of origin, and a nine-month food supply from WFP. UNHCR closed Moyale camp at year's end.

More than 3,000 ethnic Kunama Eritrean refugees fled to Ethiopia during the year because of warfare in Eritrea. UNHCR planned to open a new refugee camp in northeast Tigray to accommodate the Eritrean refugee population.

About 1,000 Djiboutian refugees lived in host communities or lived a nomadic existence in Ethiopia's Afar Region at year's end. UNHCR provided them with limited educational and medical assistance.