Refugees receive a new year boostBy REEM ABBAS | Friday, January 13  2012 at  16:07

Antonio Gueterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has unveiled a project to empower refugees in Eastern Sudan deal with the increasing threat of human and organ traffickers.

Dubbed Transitional Solutions Initiative, it is meant to arm refugees in the Eastern Sudan with special skills and resources to enable them to be self-reliant and also supports host communities living with refugees.

The launch followed visits to several refugee camps, both in the Sudan and South Sudan, where Mr Gueterres urged both sides to establish bilateral approach to refugee issues.

He also visited one of the spots where South Sudanese returnees await before they are allowed into the South Sudan, after their country became an independent nation in July 2011

According to UNHCR estimates, Sudan hosts over 100,000 Eritrean refugees many of whom arrived in the onset of the Eritrean liberation war from Ethiopia.

The numbers

The Sudanese government estimates that about one hundred refugees arrive from Ethiopia on a daily basis by crossing the porous borders into Sudan.

In Darfur, the UNHCR supports at least 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).