UM RAKUBA, Sudan: Ethiopian farmer Gebrahid Welderfael said he last saw his wife and 18-year-old daughter in the sewer in his village in the Tigray region where the family had taken shelter from explosions and gunfire.
When he returned with his younger children from a quick trip to their house to collect supplies, they were gone, lost in the chaos of a conflict in the northern region where government and rebellious Tigray forces have been fighting since Nov 4.
Unable to find them, the 45-year-old walked with his younger daughter and two young sons to the Um Rakuba camp across the border to Sudan, where more than 45,000 have fled the conflict.
Similar tales are told by other refugees. Mothers and wives say they lost their husbands, while old men, women and children have crossed the border not knowing the fate of relatives.
“When we escaped, there were people shouting ‘mom’, ‘dad’, children screaming,” Welderfael said, sitting in a small hut which he built himself where…