Cairo
Sudanese authorities on Sunday deported around three dozen Ethiopian peacekeepers, working on the U.N. mission in Darfur, to a refugee camp, the state-run news agency reported.
Al-Fateh Ibrahim Mohammed, head of the refugee agency in North Darfur province, said the troops are among 120 Ethiopian forces from the Tigrayan ethnic group, who have sought asylum in Sudan after their stay ended earlier this year, according to the SUNA news agency.
He said the the troops, including 14 women, refused to return after being recalled by their home country, Ethiopia, for fear of being detained by the federal government in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has waged a devastating war since November against the regional government in Tigray, claiming that Tigray forces had attacked a military base.
The Tigray conflict has been marked by massacres, gang rapes, expulsions and forced starvation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted in March that “ethnic cleansing” has taken place in Tigray.—AP
