United Nations agencies are mobilizing to assist at some 20,000 people who have fled the fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile state and arrived in neighbouring Ethiopia.An assessment team from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) found that the refugees arriving in the Assosa region of western Ethiopia appear in good physical condition but need food, water and shelter.So far, some 2,500 refugees who were willing to be relocated have been moved into an existing refugee camp at Sherkole that was first opened in 1997 in response to the North-South Sudanese civil war.”However, most are reluctant to go and prefer to stay near the border, hoping that fighting will die down soon and allow them to return home,” UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

Displaced family in cave on the top of al-Labu Umudwal mountain,