South Sudan Refugees in Ethiopia on the move - Courtesy

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says he has observed that thousands of South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia have returned to the country.

Filippo Grandi said that the return of the refugees is due to some issues including corruption in food aid to Ethiopians.

Grandi stated that the United States had to suspend food aid across Ethiopia, including to the South Sudanese refugee camp due to the corruption findings.

According to him, the suspension has led a few thousand South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia to return to South Sudan.

Filippo spoke in Juba on Tuesday, August 29, following the conclusion of his three-day visit to South Sudan.

“We have observed I don’t have the exact figures, but we have observed a few thousand South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia this has nothing to do with the situation in Sudan also coming,” said Filippo.

“This is due to some issues in Ethiopia you know in Ethiopia the US government had to suspend food assistance in the whole country because of corruption findings,” he said.

“They are fixing that together with the Ethiopian government, but this has provoked the suspension of food aid including in South Sudanese refugee camps and this is why some people press by that had to refuge.”

I don’t know how durable that phenomenon will be but it’s something, it is an additional problem we have to deal with at the moment.”

According to UNHCR, at the end of June 2020, Ethiopia hosted 342,765 South Sudanese refugees – of whom 319,130 were sheltered in seven camps in the Gambella Regional State.

These include 83,616 refugees in Ngueny-yiel camp, 64,898 refugees in Tierkidi camp, 58,935 in Jewi camp, 45,399 refugees in Kule camp.

Other are, 43,433 and 9,313 refugees in Pinyudo-1 and 2 camps and 11,806 refugees in Okugo Camp.

A further 1,730 refugees are accommodated with the host community in Akula.