UNHCR has recently observed spontaneous movements of South Sudanese refugees mainly from Kule camp, home to approximately 55,000 refugees, as well as some from Nguenyyiel, the newest camp in the Gambella Regional State. UNHCR staff on the ground reported up to 3,000 refugees may have left the two camps on 31 January and 1 February 2019, with limited movements continuing from Kule camp as of 5 February 2019.
In some cases, whole families were seen leaving the camp with their belongings. The reasons for the sudden departures and their final destination remained unclear. However, some refugees indicated that they were returning to South Sudan for fear of retaliatory action following the recent sub-clan based conflicts in the camp. Others said they were going to visit their families and would eventually return to the camp.
Sources within South Sudan said up to 5,000 refugees had spontaneously returned to South Sudan from Ethiopia since mid-December 2018, a number of which returned to Maiwut and Nasir Counties in Upper Nile State and were accommodated in makeshift shelters. It is understood that it is their intension to return to the camps in Ethiopia once security concerns are addressed.
Sub-clan based fighting that erupted in the Gambella camps at the beginning of January has since subsided. The government continues to engage with community elders, refugee and host community representatives as well as the humanitarian community to restore a durable peace within the camps.
UNHCR in Ethiopia is closely monitoring the situation in close coordination with agency colleagues in South Sudan.
Currently Ethiopia hosts more than 400,000 South Sudanese refugees mainly hosted in seven camps in the Gambella region.