Storms Render Thousands of Ethiopian Refugees in Sudan Homeless 

GENEVA - Aid agencies are racing against time to provide temporary shelter for more than 16,000 Ethiopian refugees in Sudan whose tents were swept away during violent storm surges over the past few weeks. 

The storms, which began in late May and gathered intensity in June, have demolished nearly 4,000 out of 10,000 individual family tents in Sudan’s eastern refugee settlements of Um Rakuba and Tunaydbah.  Strong winds, heavy rains, and hailstorms have destroyed much of the camps’ infrastructure, emergency latrines and other facilities. U.N. refugee agency spokesman, Boris Cheshirkov says the personal belongings of thousands of Ethiopian refugees have been swept away.  He says the refugees who fled to Sudan to escape the conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray province require emergency assistance.