More than 355,000 Eritreans were refugees at the end of 2000, including an estimated 350,000 in Sudan, more than 3,000 in Ethiopia, and some 3,000 in Yemen.

Approximately 310,000 Eritreans were internally displaced at year's end. Far higher numbers had been displaced in mid-year when 750,000 Eritreans became newly uprooted by war.

Eritrea hosted some 1,000 refugees from Somalia.

About 75,000 persons have been deported to Eritrea from Ethiopia during the past three years. After initial uncertainty about their nationalities, most have apparently been accepted in Eritrea as citizens.

Pre-May 2000

The year began with a four-month lull in the two-year border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia over the 620-mile (1,000 km) frontier between the two countries. Approximately 250,000 Eritreans uprooted during 1998-99 remained internally displaced. Humanitarian workers and the Eritrean government began to plan for an organized repatriation of tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees who had fled to Sudan more than a decade earlier during Eritrea's long war for independence.

Eritrea and Sudan restored diplomatic relations in January, and re-opened their shared border. Eritrea's president stated that normalization of relations between the two countries would help "expedite the process" of repatriating long-term Eritrean refugees who had lived in Sudan for the past three decades.

Eritrea also restored diplomatic ties with Djibouti in March. Relations between the neighboring countries had been suspended in November 1998 after Eritrea accused Djibouti of providing military support to Ethiopia.

In February, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resumed full operations in Eritrea after a nearly three-year hiatus. Expelled from Eritrea in 1997, UNHCR returned to prepare for the expected repatriation program. In April, UNHCR and the governments of Eritrea and Sudan signed a Tripartite Agreement, outlining a legal framework for the planned voluntary repatriation. Planners expected about 160,000 long-term Eritrean refugees to repatriate from Sudan.

During the early days of May, in response to mounting international pressure for Eritrea and Ethiopia to reach a permanent peace agreement, Eritrea's president said that he remained "committed to peace," and Ethiopia's prime minister called for "a quick end to the war." Peace talks led by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) continued.

Renewed Fighting, Then Peace

In mid-May 2000, Eritrea's relatively inactive border war with Ethiopia erupted again. Both governments continued to disagree over the exact border demarcation.

During late May and early June, Ethiopia launched a military offensive into Eritrea that newly uprooted an estimated 750,000 persons, primarily from the densely populated agricultural border zones of Debub and Gash Barka in southwest Eritrea. Ethiopian army "human wave" attacks and air and artillery bombardments by both sides caused the deaths of thousands of Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers and an untold number of civilians.

In June, after Ethiopia achieved a clear military advantage, the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a cease-fire agreement. The OAU brokered a 15-point plan that called for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force known as the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

In December, the two countries signed a formal peace agreement, officially ending the bloody two-year war. Military analysts estimated that more than 100,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers were killed during the conflict. The international diplomatic community, after much condemnation of the conflict, hailed the final agreement.

As the year ended, more than 3,000 of the mandated 4,200 UNMEE peacekeepers had deployed in a Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), which extended 15 miles (25 km) into Eritrea along the two countries' shared border. Ethiopian troops, however, still occupied large areas of Eritrea within the buffer zone, impeding the resettlement of uprooted Eritreans.

Newly Uprooted Eritreans

During 2000, an estimated 750,000 Eritrean civilians fled their homes because of Ethiopia's May-June military offensive into Eritrea. They joined an estimated quarter-million Eritreans displaced during earlier rounds of the war. The total number of uprooted Eritreans peaked at 1 million in June. An additional 340,000 Eritreans migrated from their homes because of drought.

By year's end, however, Eritrean officials and humanitarian agencies estimated that fewer than 310,000 Eritreans remained internally displaced by the war, including some 210,000 persons who found shelter in 24 temporary camps, and about 100,000 displaced people absorbed into host communities.

When Ethiopian troops advanced as far as 30 miles (50 km) into Eritrea in May, hundreds of thousands of Eritrean civilians fled northwest toward the Eritrea-Sudan border. Others fled northward past Akordat, the Gash Barka provincial capital, and into central Eritrea. Ethiopian military advances across the southeastern front of Bure, 45 miles (70 km) from the strategic Eritrean Red Sea port of Assab, uprooted tens of thousands more people. Additional mass displacement occurred in the Zalambesa and Tsorena front, fewer than 50 miles (80 km) south of the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

An estimated 250,000 Eritreans fled Ethiopian advances toward Omhajer, Tesseney, and Barentu in southwest Eritrea, to the Sudanese border. Some 95,000 crossed into Sudan. Most of the refugees arrived in Sudan "weak, tired, and in a state of shock," the World Food Program (WFP) reported. An estimated 150,000 others scattered along the Eritrean-Sudan border, including 50,000 encamped at an agriculture center. Barred from entering Sudan with female livestock, thousands of Eritrean families camped with their animals north of Tesseney.

During late May and early June, Ethiopian troops captured scores of towns and villages in Debub and Gash Barka zones, causing hundreds of thousands to flee, many for a second and third time. Residents of displacement camps constructed to accommodate Eritreans uprooted in earlier rounds of the war also fled advancing Ethiopian troops. The government's Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERREC) stated that displacement of the population in the southwest zones of Debub and Gash Barka, some 500,000 persons, was "near total."

An estimated 330,000 Eritreans fled with no possessions, food, or water, and sought refuge in caves, open fields, and along dry riverbeds. The precise number of displaced persons was uncertain because most fled to remote areas only accessible by foot and unreachable to humanitarian agencies.

The thousands of people who continued farther north into the zone of Anseba inundated host communities that were already overstressed, yet accommodating. South of Asmara, an estimated 40,000 Eritreans, under heavy air and artillery bombardments, reportedly fled by foot, bicycle, and truck 25 miles (40 km) south to Debarwa.

During the last days of May, the government of Eritrea withdrew its defeated troops from the Zalambesa, Tsorena, and Bure fronts. Ethiopia troops pushed beyond the contested borderlands and pursued the retreating Eritrean army, causing additional population flight.

Despite official cessation of hostilities in June, Ethiopian advances and fighting continued in areas around Asmara, Assab, and parts of Debub and Gash Barka zones.

Eritrean authorities deported some 25,000 Ethiopians during 2000. Some sources placed the number of expulsions as high as 31,000. A number of Ethiopians died in overcrowded detention centers while awaiting deportation. Six deportees reportedly drowned while crossing a river border between the two countries. Five other deportees reportedly disappeared and presumably died while departing the country.

Humanitarian Conditions

Two years of warfare with Ethiopia imposed an additional layer of misery in a country already suffering from drought and dangerous food shortages.

Ethiopia's military offensive deep into Eritrea crippled already low agricultural production, destroyed an estimated two-thirds of southwest Eritrea's livestock, and caused widespread destruction to Eritrea's businesses, places of worship, homes, and the country's deteriorated transportation and water infrastructure. The war destroyed 300 schools and 90 health centers, Eritrean officials said.

The government's ERREC agency coordinated the humanitarian response to an estimated 1.5 million Eritreans affected by war and drought – one-half of the population – and effectively staved off famine and mass outbreak of diseases.

Exacerbated by seasonal rains, Eritrea's limited and war-damaged transportation system initially slowed humanitarian assistance to displaced populations. Poor road access impeded urgent humanitarian deliveries to an estimated 330,000 Eritreans displaced in remote areas.

In May, UNHCR provided more than $4 million and reallocated supplies to support initial emergency assistance programs. In addition, UNHCR airlifted stockpiled plastic sheeting, kitchen sets, medical kits, and other relief supplies from the Balkans, Cairo, and Copenhagen to Asmara and to Eritrean refugees in Sudan.

In July, UN humanitarian agencies appealed to international donors for $87 million to meet the emergency needs of Eritrea's war-affected population, but received only $58 million by year's end – two-thirds of the funding needed. Of the total UN appeal, UNHCR said it required $23 million to assist displaced Eritreans as well as Eritrean refugees in neighboring countries. Donor nations supplied ample funds for food relief, but funding for emergency shelter, clothing, sanitation, and other non-food projects fell short by 60 percent.

The rapid flight of Eritreans to displacement camps and into host communities posed a challenge to humanitarian relief operations. Tens of thousands of uprooted Eritreans "crammed" overcrowded camps where conditions were "deplorable," a UNHCR report stated in July.

The arrival of tens of thousands of displaced persons at impoverished host communities in the zones of Anseba, northern Debub, and Maekel in central Eritrea stretched already limited resources, particularly food. Although some households hosted up to five displaced families, host families reportedly received smaller food relief rations than did families in internally displaced camps.

Humanitarian conditions and aid agencies' response improved greatly by year's end, however. UNICEF provided learning materials to nearly 100,000 displaced children, constructed temporary classrooms, and helped train 30 social workers to identify the psycho-social needs of children traumatized by the war.

UN humanitarian agencies and the Eritrean government launched a landmine awareness education campaign for repatriated Eritreans and internally displaced persons. A program to remove thousands of landmines from Eritrea's prime agriculture and returnee areas proceeded slowly because it lacked funding.

Return of Uprooted Eritreans

Despite security concerns, an estimated 600,000 uprooted Eritreans returned to their areas of origin by year's end. Eritreans deported from Ethiopia settled in urban and rural areas. The presence of Ethiopian forces and landmines in Eritrea's main farming region, however, effectively blocked tens of thousands of other families from returning home.

Some 35,000 Eritrean refugees who had fled to Sudan in May spontaneously repatriated to Gash Barka Zone in southwest Eritrea in July. ERREC called the rapid repatriation "a positive development," but acknowledged that the scale of the unannounced return "presented new challenges," for humanitarian agencies working in Eritrea.

By year's end, an estimated 50,000 short-term Eritrean refugees had voluntarily repatriated from Sudan. Most were farmers eager to begin planting. UNHCR and WFP supplied registered returnees with a two-month food ration.

The majority of returnees found their homes looted and reduced to rubble. In nearly all towns and villages in Debub and Gash Barka zones, the economic, health, transportation, and water infrastructure was completely destroyed. UNHCR provided accommodation in transit centers to Eritrean refugees who wished to return to their homes in areas still occupied by Ethiopian forces.

The devastation caused by two years of warfare left uprooted Eritreans with "no homes, no fields, and no prospects to earn a living," a UNHCR report concluded.

The estimated 350,000 Eritrean refugees who remained in Sudan at year's end included about 30,000 short-term refugees who had fled to Eritrea in May, and about 320,000 long-term refugees who had fled many years earlier.

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