UM RAQUBA REFUGEE CAMP, Sudan: Like all mothers-to-be, Berekhti Burro dreamt of bringing new life into the world in a safe place, with love and care at home to give her baby the best start. But Burro, nine-months pregnant, was forced to flee intense fighting near her home in Humera in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, trekking for hours in the blazing sun to safety in neighbouring Sudan.
Now the 27-year-old sits with her husband in their new home; a makeshift shelter in the rapidly growing tent-town of Um Raquba refugee camp, some 80 kilometres from the border.
With her baby due any day now, she has only one thought; what will become of her child?
“It’s all I think, about day and night,” Burro said.
“I am really scared to give birth here. What if he got sick, or needs an operation. What will I do then?”
She is not alone. UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, estimates there are more than 700 pregnant women among the new arrivals of refugees.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, unleashed a military campaign on November 4 against Tigray’s dissident leaders, accusing them of attacking federal military camps and trying to destabilise his government.
Hundreds are reported to have been killed, and thousands of refugees have fled into neighbouring Sudan. Fighting continues, with Ethiopia’s army on Sunday warning civilians to flee the key city of Mekelle before an all-out assault.
Sudan’s government is already burdened by its own economic woes and grinding poverty, but authorities immediately sought to prepare camps.
The numbers of people arriving are overwhelming. Some 36,000 Ethiopians have already come, according to Sudan’s refugee commission, but the United Nations warns numbers could rise to 200,000 within months. — AFP
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