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Three aid workers and a doctor told Reuters this week that
Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers forcibly detained more than 500
young men and women from four camps for displaced people in the
town of Shire in the northern region on Monday night.
"We reiterate our call on all parties to ensure the protection
of civilians including the forcibly displaced. It is crucial
that all parties to the conflict recognise the civilian and
humanitarian character of the displacement sites," Babar Baloch,
spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
told a Geneva news briefing.
Some had been released after UNHCR raised the matter with
Ethiopian authorities, he said, providing no figure.
"The situation is traumatic and distressing not only for the
relatives of the missing but for all the displaced communities
residing in Shire," he added.
It was not immediately clear where the remaining youth were
being detained, he added.
Thousands of people have been killed since the conflict erupted,
2 million have been forced from their homes and 91% of the
population of nearly 6 million are in need of aid, according to
the latest report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge; Editing by
William Maclean)
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