Another 2,500 Eritreans refugees go home from Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Another 2,500 Eritrean refugees have left Sudan, bringing the total number of Eritreans who have returned in the last week to 9,500, U.N. officials said on Monday.

The voluntary repatriation of Eritrean refugees who fled fierce fighting between Eritrea and neighboring Ethiopia in May and June began last Tuesday when around 600 returned to Eritrea.

The 2,500 refugees left in 85 trucks, from Shagreb and al-Lafa camps in Kassala state in eastern Sudan.

On Friday 1,900 refugees were forced to sleep on the road because of heavy rains which have hampered the repatriation.

"Despite the rains, a record number of people have gone home," an official for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Sudan already had 160,000 Eritrean refugees when 90,000 entered the country during the recent fighting, which halted in June with an Organization of African Unity (OAU) peace plan.

Eritrea -- an Italian colony until World War II -- was an Ethiopian province until 1993, when it became independent with Ethiopian support.

Under the OAU peace plan, an international peacekeeping force is to control a 25-kilometer (15 mile) buffer zone pending a joint operation to define the border.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more Africa news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about Africa

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.