Eritrea: Open Letter of Appeal to UNHCR on behalf of the Victims of Shegerab Refugee Camp in the Sudan

The Eritrean National Council for Democratic Change

Executive Office

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

To: His Excellency Mr. Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Gutierrez

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Date: December 30, 2014

Subject: Open Letter of Appeal to UNHCR on behalf of the Victims of Shegerab Refugee Camp in the Sudan

Dear Sir:

The Eritrean National Council for Democratic Change-ENCDC hereby appeals to your Excellency on the repeated victimization of Eritrean refugees in the refugee camp of Shegerab in Eastern Sudan. In this very camp, our refugees, men, women and children had been subjected to deadly incidents of attacks, human trafficking, and various other inhumane treatments including horrendous physical, psychological and sexual abuses of young underage women. The regime in Eritrea considers these refugees as enemies of the state, and had repeatedly infiltrated the camps to kidnap persons posed to be potential advocates of their refugee compatriots, and perceived to be harmful to its government by informing the world the true nature of the regime.

On December 25, 2015, yet the most deadly incident in the history of the refugee camps happened in Shegerab when a boat carrying refugees and traveling via Atbara River to Khartoum capsized resulting in 17 dead. The incident was followed by Sudanese state security police jailing innocent refugees who were responding to the incident, and vigilante tribal paratroopers setting their houses on fire with no regard to the safety of refugee lives. Unspecified number of refuges loaded in convoys of 7-8 trucks were taken from Shegerab to the Eastern city of Kessela by security forces, and their where about is still unknown. The number of refugees disappeared, dead, or jailed is not yet confirmed, but the United Nations High commissioner for refugees has the utmost responsibility to protect the safety of the refugees, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Sudanese people and the government are sharing the biggest burden of hosting an overwhelming number of Eritrean refugees crossing its boarder daily, and inhabiting in the refugee camps for indefinite period of time. At the same time it is the Sudanese government’s responsibility to protect the refugees and maintain law and order in the refugee camps. Therefore we urge the UNHCR to investigate the incident, and bring to justice parties involved in the death, and incarceration of innocent refugees, and closely monitor the situation to protect the defenseless refugees in collaboration with Sudanese security forces.

Furthermore, we want to bring to your attention that the root cause of the influx of refugees crossing boarders to neighboring countries escaping all abuses-is the unconstitutional, authoritarian regime in Eritrea that is holding the nation hostage by setting policies that indiscriminately, and indefinitely enslave its citizens. Solving the Shegerab incident will be one step forward, but will only be a band-aid treatment to a nation whose whole body is wounded by abuses perpetrated by the illegitimate government. It is time for the United Nations along with the International community to bring the regime to justice, and help the nation establish a democratic and lawful system compatible with the international norms set by the United Nations.

Best Regards;

Kifleyohannes W. Giorgis

ENCDC-Executive Office-Chairman