Sudanese refugees in an Ethiopian forest are exposed to attacks by bandits and militias

Thousands of Sudanese refugees are living in a forest near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan after surviving attacks by local militias on their UN-run camps.

Refugees said that about 7,000 refugees have left the camps and about 3,000 still live in the forest alongside “wild animals” such as hyenas, scorpions and snakes.

As for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, it said that about a thousand people had left the refugee camps.

Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), have been waging a war that has left about 15,000 dead and about 10 million displaced and refugees, according to the United Nations.

More than 53,000 people took refuge in Ethiopia, and about 8,500 of them were resettled in United Nations camps.