IHP is mobilizing base camps to UNHCR awake of escalating refugee emergency

Published: 2020-12-07

IHP has urgently been activated and is actively mobilizing support to UNHCR in Sudan. Several of the IHP members are involved in the scale-up of activities, with the aim of providing three base camps to the border areas between Sudan and Ethiopia.

After the military confrontations in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, UNHCR has recorded an influx of asylum seekers at border entry point points in East Sudan. Over 30,000 Ethiopians have sought safety in Eastern Sudan from Ethiopia, with numbers of refugees expected to rise while the conflict continues. UNHCR’s teams at the border areas of the eastern Sudanese states of Kassala and Gedaref are working with the Sudanese Commissioner of Refugees (CoR), local authorities and parterns to monitor and respond to the situation, as well as mobilizing resources to provide live-saving assistance services to the new arrivals. Inter-agency coordination and contingency response planning is also well underway.

“We are doing the best of our ability to gather the necessary resources to deploy as soon as possible. It is in these circumstances a solid relationship amongst the IHP members, as well as a long and reliable relationship with UNHCR proves to be important. We hope to be able to deploy our teams and resources within the coming days” – says Sofia Westberg – MSB Project Manager and IHP Operational Lead.

UNHCR has requested support from the Civil Protection Members of the IHP network in the form of tented base camps for inter-agency office and accommodation in three locations in Eastern Sudan:

Hamdayat border (30 working spaces/30 overnight spaces)
Village 8 (20 working spaces/ 20 overnight spaces)
Umrakuba (30 working space/ 20 overnight spaces)

MSB Sweden is the IHP Operational Lead Agency and the mobilization of resources is done jointly with DSB Norway, DEMA Denmark, ERB Estonia and CGDIS Luxembourg. The support is funded and supported be the respective governments. The European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM) has been activated and the support is coordinated closely with EUCPM.