Refugees from Sudan's civil war who fled into neighboring Ethiopia say they have been forced to move on again and take shelter in a forest and on roadsides after repeated attacks by gunmen left their tents pock-marked with bullet holes.

About 8,000 people have left the Kumer and Awlala refugee camps, set up by the United Nations in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, since repeated assaults last month, mostly by bandits, camp representatives said this week.

They had originally fled fighting that broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023 that has led to extreme hunger in parts of that country and accusations of ethnic cleansing in Darfur.