About 9,000 Tiglayans living in displaced persons camps in the city of Semera, Ethiopia, have been allowed to return to their hometown of Avala (United Nations Coordination Office). increase. The Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Tuesday.
In June the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported that many people in the camp were held against their will. When fighting broke out between the Tiglayan People's Liberation Front and the Afar Regional Army, they said they were rounded up and forcibly removed from Avala in December because of their Tiglayan ethnicity.
In June, the VOA visited two of his camps in Semera and spoke with people who claimed they were being held against their will.
Many were told by authorities that they were being held in camps "for their own safety" as the TPLF attacked and occupied Avala .
He is one of those still living in the Semera camp, whose name the VOA is withholding for his safety, but on Tuesday he said nine buses would bring people back to Avala, the VOA said. told to He said that since the EHRC report, officials from various offices have discussed their return to Avala with them.
A camp committee was allowed to visit Avala to observe the situation of the returnees, he added: our return. ''
TPLF said he left Abala in late April.
When asked why it took so long for the camp's inhabitants to be cleared back to Avala, Ivekar Gizau Agonafil of the EHRC told VOA: Ensure that reconciliation takes place before these internally displaced persons return to their places of residence in Avala. deemed necessary by or involved in these IDPS disputes.
Asked the same question, Michel Saad of OCHA said the lack of basic services at Abala is preventing them from returning.
"We have to keep in mind that in many of these places, basic services are either not working or not working yet," Saad said. "Returning them has never been a feasible or viable option."
According to the United Nations, Avala has no electricity, water or medical facilities.
