The urgent financial appeal is also expected to strengthen the preparedness to receive refugees in other countries in the region in case of further refugee movements, said a statement from the UN refugee agency, quoting its spokesperson Andrej Mahecic at a Tuesday press briefing in Geneva.

 

Weeks of fights in northern Ethiopia's Tigray regional state between the Tigray People's Liberation Front and the Ethiopian Defense Forces have reportedly left hundreds of people dead, thousands displaced, and millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

 

More than 52,000 refugees have fled Tigray into eastern Sudan over the past six weeks, according to the UN refugee agency.

 

Though new arrivals dropped more recently to some 500 a day, aid agencies were dealing with "a full-scale humanitarian emergency" in a very remote area that has not seen such a large refugee influx in decades, said the statement.

 

The regional refugee preparedness and response plan covered the period from November 2020, when the situation in Tigray escalated after months of growing political tensions, through to June 2021, and aimed to reach up to 115,000 refugees and 22,000 people from host communities.

 

It further includes support for the governments of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea in maintaining and facilitating access to asylum and providing life-saving assistance to those who have been forced to flee.