Letter of Appeal From the Oromo Refugees in Egypt

To: UNHCR Headquarter – Geneva,

We, members of the Oromo Community in Cairo are out of our home, camping in front of the UNHCR office in Cairo since last Sunday (09/06/2013) when we went out for demonstration in front of the UNHCR office in Egypt to present our security concern peacefully because of the escalating harassment and physical attack on members of our community from the Egyptian ordinary society who felt angry and started attacking members of our community after Ethiopia announced diversion of the normal flow of the blue Nile River to build the so called renaissance dam in Ethiopia.

We decided to demonstrate in front of the UNHCR after we started receiving shocking incidents like what happened to our brotherAbbi Haru Buli (UHNCR File No.: 352/2010), whose was beaten severely by 3 Egyptian men and burned by hot metal stick over his back on 26 May 2013. The most disappointing thing was police officer’s treatment when he went to file the report with his father and with an elders in our community who said to him “You Ethiopians are cutting our Nile, you are all lairs … so I do not file the report; I will inform other police stations in the neighborhood also so that they refuse filing reports to Ethiopians anywhere, while he (the officer) was looking at Abbi crying for help.” The other incident was that of our sister Amina Husen Shone (UNHCR File No. 1202/2013) on 30/05/2013 who was thrown under TUKTUK just because she is Ethiopian while she was going to Ambabarsum hospital for medical follow up; the third incidents was when our friend Abdurazak who works as and interpreter in the UNHCR was also attacked by group of Egyptian men on 6^th of June 2013 just because he is Ethiopian; another shocking incident which led us to demonstration in front of the UNHCR Cairo was when three Oromo refugees: 1. Ahmed Omer Mohamed (UNHCR File No.: 2746/2011), 2.Sabir Abdalla Ali and Abdalla’s wife 3. Bilise Oli Ahmed – 5 months (UNHCR File No. 1585/2013) who were sharing the same apartment in Maadi Neighborhood were brutally attacked in their apartment on 07/06/2013 by three angry Egyptian men just because they are known in that area as Ethiopian residents;

There are many other incidents which led us to demonstrate in front of the UNHCR like eviction from home, expelling from job, killing threats and rape incidents that happened to our sisters by their employers and by brokers on different occasions.

Our main demand from the UNHCR starting from the first day of our protest is to ask for our safety and protection for our lives from the UNHCR office in Cairo and from the Egyptian society. However, nothing is improved until today as we are still receiving reports of eviction from home and beating as happened to Mr. Anwar Mohamed Fati (UNHCR File No.: 2410/2013) was evicted from his apartment on Tuesday 11/06/2013 after his apartment’s door was broken and his properties were stolen. The land lord who did all this crime against Mr. Anwar called him again on 14/06/2013 saying “Come back and take your deposit,” has prepared four people against him including two police men who beat Mr. Anwar and his wife as seen on his back on the photo we took immediately after the incident.

Another two recent incidents were about rape attempt by UNHCR security officer against our sister Humashi Feleke Dukassa (UNHCR File No.: 2464/2013) on 14/06/2013 and about the attack happened to our friend Mohammed Hassane Yusuf (UNHCR File No.: 299/2011) in front of the UNHCR office on 11/06/2013 who was beaten when he was trying to defend another Oromo girl from rape attempt. He  was also denied emergency medical aid because he was identified as Ethiopian in nationality.

These are recent evidences that show us our member’s security problem are still increasing, and we are also receiving many more reports of incidents as a record. We fear this number would increase after the Ethiopian parliament approved Entebbe protocol last Thursday 13/06/2013 according to report from Aljazeera Arabic online: http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/778d8ab8-5c8f-46d1-824e-66312c43dc3d which removes Egypt’s veto power over the Nile River. There is also a very big demonstration to be staged at Tahrir square against the government and about the Nile River Dam which we fear may escalate our security concern.