Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has relocated from the Ethiopian border town of Burbeiye to Mattar following escalating violence along the South Sudan-Ethiopia border, the group said Friday.
The move comes as thousands of South Sudanese refugees, who had initially fled to Burbeiye, are now moving further inland to Mattar. MSF cited intensified clashes between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and an opposition armed group, including cross-border gunfire that injured several people in Burbeiye on May 12.
“Burbeiye has become critically dangerous. With thousands of refugees fleeing in one night alone, it was clear we had to follow the people and the needs,” said Joshua Eckley, MSF’s head of mission in Ethiopia.
Refugees arriving in Mattar reported escaping aerial bombardments and violence in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State, particularly in the towns of Nasir and Ulang. One refugee, Nyayul, said she lost children in the chaos: “When the bombs started falling, everyone ran. I only have two with me now. The others, I don’t know where they are.”
Ethiopia’s Gambella region is facing overlapping crises, MSF said, with a cholera outbreak in Wanthoa Woreda and a surge of refugees fleeing fighting in South Sudan’s Upper Nile and Jonglei states. The group has treated over 1,200 cholera patients and provided more than 3,000 outpatient consultations in recent weeks.
Between 35,000 and 85,000 refugees are now in Mattar, most living in overcrowded makeshift shelters with strained resources. MSF reported alarming health conditions: over 40% of malaria tests are positive, nearly 7% of children under 5 show severe acute malnutrition, and more than 14% of pregnant and lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition.
The organization called for all parties to ensure safe humanitarian access and urged donors to increase aid. “Shelter, water and medical care are in desperately short supply for people who have fled horrific violence,” MSF said.