Ethiopia–South Sudan border
A porous border between Ethiopia’s Gambela region and South Sudan. Since South Sudan’s civil war so many refugees have crossed it that by 2017 they outnumbered the local population of Gambela, and in 2016 a cross-border raid killed at least 140 people, Ethiopia said.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Ethiopia →South Sudan →
A porous frontier
In April 2016, the Ethiopian government said, gunmen from South Sudan’s Murle community killed at least 140 civilians and abducted children in Gambela’s Jakawa area, which straddles the border; it said its forces had killed 60 attackers and might cross into South Sudan in pursuit, and that the raiders had no link to South Sudan’s army or rebels. A former US ambassador to Ethiopia told Al Jazeera the region had a long history of ethnic conflict on both sides of the line.[2]
“The border is porous and movement back and forth between South Sudan and Ethiopia is common”[2]
Refugees
South Sudan’s civil war drove refugees into Gambela; by 2016 the region and a neighbouring province hosted more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees.[2] In 2017 the camps in Gambela were full and refugees outnumbered the local population, so the UN’s migration agency began moving new arrivals from the Pagak entry point to a camp about 835 km away.[1]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]UN migration agency transports hundreds of South Sudanese refugees from border into Ethiopia · UN News · 5 May 2017
- [2]Ethiopia says South Sudanese gunmen kill 140 civilians · Al Jazeera (news agencies) · 17 April 2016
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.