Ethiopian official insists borders will not be closed despite influx piling increasing strain in one of the country's poorest regions
"We left all our property - our home, our goats and chickens. I ran out and this is all that I have," Nyakuom Tongyik says, pointing to the floral dress and pink scarf she is wearing. The 22-year-old is one of more than 70,000 refugees who have crossed the border into Ethiopia, fleeing fighting and devastation in South Sudan.
Her husband and father were killed when clashes erupted in their home town of Malakal, she says, sitting in her cramped, hot white tent at Leitchor refugee camp in Gambella, western Ethiopia. She escaped with two of her children, but was separated from the third amid the chaos. During the 20-day walk to the Akobo border, Tongyik's daughter fell sick. "She died on the way," she says. "There was no way to get her to the hospital."
Gambella, one of the poorest regions in one of the most food-insecure countries, was home to more than 76,000 asylum seekers from South Sudan when fighting erupted in Juba in December. The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, is preparing to accommodate an influx of 150,000 refugees, but the government is concerned that the actual figure will be much higher.
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