Ecology: Environmental depreciation!!
By: Mohammed Ahmed Al-feelable
Why whenever we say that Africa has started to recover and its wounds are on the mend, we are taken aback by new flames? Consequently, we are witnessing massive cross-border migrations from here to there.
We rejoiced in Rwanda as it transcended its painful past and moved steadily toward revival. We also boasted South Africa’s recovery as its officials there dedicated their attention to environmental reform and development. In recent years, we have been looking with glee at our neighbor Ethiopia as it followed suit, overcoming past grievances.
However, since 3 November 2020, Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been bursting with fire and piling misery on the helpless and rural poor inhabitants. Since then, there have been reports of an influx of thousands of families crossing the Sudanese border, following official permission, announcement, and readiness to receive 20,000 refugees in the first phase. As many as 700 refugees had already arrived in the same month, according to (Independent Arabia, 11 November 2020), and at that time some speculated that the number would reach 200,000 if fighting continued, (BBC, 11 November).
Fears about the repercussions of the war have been growing, especially in eastern Sudan, where victims of the Ethiopian war are taking refuge, not to mention the region is already going through political and ethnic tensions. There are concerns the situation could worsen if the flow of refugees, including military personnel, continues, even if the latter surrender their weapons at the border.
Could the transition period, with all its fragility, tolerate such a mass influx of refugees? And where? In the same areas whose environment was previously degraded for the same reasons at the end of the last century?
At that time, environmentalists had warned that a sweeping attack on wildlife, forests, and valley trees in those areas, caused a tremendous threat to the environment, disturbing the ecological balance due to the refugees’ lack of environmental awareness as well as the inhabitants in the host region.
What could a poor refugee do when sheltering in a second homeland other than rely entirely on what the new land has to offer? New refugees indeed need shelter, medical and psychological treatment, food, and clothing. However, the environment in their host areas will be greatly exhausted, especially since aid organizations do not provide housing and cooking fuel, and accordingly, refugees will resort to the remaining forests in those areas.
Sudan’s refugee program has been the oldest in Africa (more than 50 years old), and eastern Sudan has seen influxes from Ethiopia and Eritrea at different times. The greatest burden always falls on UNHCR, unlike the rest of the United Nations and domestic organizations, and, each time the international community calls on these organizations to be up to the challenge to reduce the threat of disaster. Would they?!