Nearly 25,000 refugees flee Ethiopia to Sudan

Around 25,000 Ethiopians fleeing conflict in the Tigray region have crossed into neighbouring Sudan, state-run Sudan News Agency (SUNA) has reported.

"The number of Ethiopian refugees who have arrived in Gadaref and Kassala states since Saturday has reached 24,944," SUNA said.

Sudan's commissioner for refugees Abdullah Suleiman toured the border region on Saturday with the UN refugee agency assistant representative in Sudan Jan Hansmann to discuss the influx.

Hansmann, quoted by SUNA, said the priority of the UNHCR was to provide the refugees with shelter, food, and water and then to transfer them to regions far from the border "for security reasons".

He said the UN refugee agency was working to establish new camps in Sudan for the Ethiopians.

Up to 200,000 could seek shelter in Sudan

Sudan has already said it would shelter thousands of Ethiopians fleeing the conflict at the Um Raquba camp, which in the 1980s hosted thousands of Ethiopian fleeing famine.

Over the past week, exhausted refugees have streamed across the border into Sudan after walking for two-days through searing heat, many of them barefoot.

Some arrived on scooters and other cycled, while others boarded makeshift boats to cross a river into Sudan to flee intense fighting at home.

Suleiman called on the international community to pitch in with aid for the refugees.

UNHCR said it expected the number of refugees to grow if the conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia worsens.

A Sudanese government source said up to 200,000 Ethiopians could seek shelter in Sudan.

READ MORE: Ethiopia's Tigray region fires missiles into neighbouring Eritrea

Tension in restive Tigray

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on November 4 that he had ordered military operations in Tigray in a dramatic escalation of a long-running feud with the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The leader of the Tigray region on Sunday claimed responsibility for rocket strikes on the airport of neighbouring Eritrea's capital, sparking fears that the conflict could widen.

Accusing neighbouring Eritrea of sending tanks and thousands of troops into Tigray in support of an Ethiopian government offensive, Debretsion Gebremichael said his forces were under attack "on several fronts."

"Our country is attacking us with a foreign country, Eritrea. Treason!," Debretsion said in text messages to Reuters news agency, without providing further details or evidence of his claims.

READ MORE: Gunmen kill dozens in Ethiopia bus attack

Communications blocked 

With access restricted and most communications down in Tigray, Reuters could not independently verify assertions made by all sides about the 12-day conflict.

Government officials in Eritrea and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa could not be reached for comment.

PM Abiy tweeted on Sunday that Ethiopia was more than capable of achieving its objectives in Tigray "by itself" but did not specifically address Debretsion's claims.

Last week, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed told Reuters: "We are not part of the conflict."