Sudan: last Ethiopians return

UNHCR today returned home the last group of Ethiopian refugees who fled their country during 16 years of military dictatorship that ended in 1991. Carrying 700 people from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to Ethiopia, it was the last UNHCR-led convoy for Ethiopian refugees who fled the Mengistu rule during the 1970s and 1980s. Some 10,700 Ethiopian refugees have returned home in the repatriation operation, which began in December after UNHCR invoked the "cessation clause" in respect to Ethiopian refugees who fled their country during the Mengistu regime. The decision means that as a group, Mengistu-era refugees can now go back to Ethiopia without fearing persecution. About 4,000 refugees from Ethiopia who are unwilling to return home have approached UNHCR and the Sudanese government seeking permission to stay on in Sudan.