23-11-2020 | di COOPI

Sudan. COOPI's response to the Ethiopian refugee emergency in Hamdayet

Thanks to the sudden support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), since November 14, COOPI - Cooperazione Internazionale is providing 40,000 litres of water per day to Ethiopian refugees in Hamdayet, Sudan, through the use of tankers.

Hamdayet is a village in the state of Kassala, on the border with Eritrea and Ethiopia, and it is the main entry point for people fleeing the Tigray region in Ethiopia due to the conflict between Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF). In the space of a week, Hamdayet registered almost 27,000 applications for political asylum; a significant number, compared to the total number of some 40,000 refugees registered by UNHCR in Sudan yesterday.

UNHCR data update as of 21st November 2020.

Faced with this situation, COOPI took immediate action to respond to the most urgent needs of both the refugee population in Sudan and the host population. The first of these is the supply of drinking water, through funds already earmarked for the AICS-funded project "Emergency Initiative to Improve Access to Water and Food Security, Natural Resources Management and Environmental Protection in Kassala State".

Hamdayet is facing a long series of shortcomings, mainly in the Water and Hygiene sector: scarcity of latrines, lack of washing facilities, lack of waste management systems are among the main problems that are negatively affecting the refugees' experience in Hamdayet. COOPI team in Sudan is working to find answers to all these problems.

Thanks to Giampaolo Pastorelli for his collaboration.