SUDAN : TIGRAY WAR
It was the evening of november the 9th, 2020. Johanes had walked up the hills overlooking Humera to enjoy the view. His hometown located north of Ethiopia, was gleaming. The weather was cool. Johanes met his friends and lit a joint. It was all smooth. Johanes was about to graduate from textile ingeneering university.
Suddently, a missile crossed the sky over Humera, and exploded on the city. "I can't believe it." Johanes cleared off to find his family. Explosions were resonating around him. Cell networks got cut out. The student was petrified. His mother and sisters were nowhere to be found. When he bumped into his father, the two men ran away among the crowd of civilians escaping towards the soudanese border.
Johanes hadn't told me his story straightaway. I assembled the pieces of his life after we had finished our interviews, and before he was about to translate them. In Hamdayet, Sudan, Johanes had become my interpreter because he was speaking english. I had arrived to tell the story of the Ethiopian Tigrean refugees who had fled the fighing between the governmental army and the Tigrean rebels.
When I had reached the Ethiopian-Sudanese border marked by the Tekeze river, I had felt that most of the Tigrean refugees would probably never come home. But they hadn't realized it yet. They had entered an adminstrative journey: registration, counting, queueing for a blanket, potable water, and food. They were bording buses travelling to a new desert camp. I joined them in the beginnings of their new life. In Um Rakuba camp, Tigrean refugees came to realize that their exile might be everlasting. They had met up with other refugees who had fled Ethiopia 35 years before. Being a refugee is not an easy path. They are over 80 millions in the world.
"Do you think we will come home soon?" Asked Johanes. I couldn't lie to him.
Habrehaley, 21, from May Kadra, Ethiopia. According to Amnesty International, "a massacre » happened in his village. Habrehaley was beaten, and left for dead, by militiamen linked to the federal government. He believes he was targeted because of his Tigrayan ethnicity.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan.
Potable water distribution. Before reaching Sudan, Ethiopians walked miles to escape the war in their Tigray region against their Federal Government.
Tekeze river separates Ethiopia from Sudan. Tigray people walked for days to reach this point. They fled the fightings between the Tigray rebels and their Federal government.
The Sudanese bank of the Tekeze river.
Most of the Tigray refugees have crossed the border here to reach Hamdayet camp.
Tekeze river, separates Ethiopia from Sudan. Tigray people walk for days to reach this point. They fled a region in war against their Federal government. Boats brings a constant flow of newcomers who made their first step as refugee people.
Tekeze river, separates Ethiopia from Sudan. Tigray people walk for days to reach this point. They fled a region in war against their Federal government. Boats brings a constant flow of newcomers who made their first step as refugee people. They bring whatever they can to start this new life.
Tekeze river, separates Ethiopia from Sudan. Tigray people walk for days to reach this point. They fled a region in war against their Federal government. Boats brings a constant flow of newcomers who made their first step as refugee people.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan, early morning. In the waiting line to get a mats and a blanket. During the day, temperature can reach 39 celsius degrees, but drop drastically at night. Tigray people fled a region in war against their Federal government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan. Refugees queue for the food distribution. Before reaching Sudan, Ethiopians walked miles to escape the war in their Tigray region against their Federal Government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan, early morning. This crowd of new comers queue to register their names. They walk miles from neighbooring Ethiopia to reach Sudan and escape the war in their region against their Federal Government. Once registered people will be able to get a ticket to move to further south camp, in Humra Kuba.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan. Most of the people have to to sleep outside. Before reaching Sudan, Ethiopians walked miles to escape the war in their Tigray region against their Federal Government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan, afternoon. This crowd of new comers queue to register their names under the great tent of UNHCR. They walk miles from neighbooring Ethiopia to reach Sudan and escape the war in their region against their Federal Government. Once registered people will be able to get a ticket to move to further south camp, in Humra Kuba.
Hamdayet refugee camp, DWB health center, Sudan. Danait, 22, gave birth here 6 days ago. She and her husband had run away from the bombings in Humera.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan. Most of the people have to to sleep outside. Before reaching Sudan, Ethiopians walked miles to escape the war in their Tigray region against their Federal Government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan, midday. This crowd of new comers queue to register get their mats and blankets. During the day, temperature can reach 39 celsius degrees, but drop drastically at night. Tigray people fled a region in war against their Federal government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan. In the waiting line to get a mats and a blanket. During the day, temperature can reach 39 celsius degrees, but drop drastically at night. Tigray people fled a region in war against their Federal government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan. Distribution of water. Before reaching Sudan, Ethiopians walked miles to escape the war in their Tigray region against their Federal Government.
Hamdayet refugee camp, Sudan.
the buses will take the refugees to a new permanent camp further South, to the desert.
Um Rakuba camp, Sudan.
After a 10-hours drive, the refugees reach their new home. The camp is adapted to a long-term stay.
Early morning, newcomers fall asleep.
Young Ethiopians from Tigray facing their future. A refugee town growing out of nowhere. In the middle of the desert. At three days of walk to the first big city, Um Rakuba camp. Most of the refugees arrived through Hamdayet, 10 hours of bus from there. The UNHCR then push them to migrate here, where the sudanese authorities want to concentrate all the Ethiopian refugees.
Um Rakuba refugee camp, Sudan.
A Sudanese sells electricity to charge the cellphones, beverage and ice creams.
Um Rakuba refugee camp, Sudan.
Ethiopians building a straw house. The sudanese government and the UNHCR gather the Ethiopian refugees in the same place.
