The number of refugees fleeing the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia - where federal and regional forces are engaged in fighting - has reduced drastically after soldiers were deployed to the border with Sudan. The AFP first spotted the soldiers on Wednesday, at the Hamdayet border crossing point, and has been hearing testimonies from refugees who say their relatives are being blocked from leaving Ethiopia. "I arrived yesterday morning and I wanted to go back home to bring my family here," said one man who did not want to be identified. Speaking on the banks of River Sittet in Hamdayet, he told the BBC he had been unable to return to Tigray to get his relatives because "there are soldiers on the border and those who had gone before me were asked not to return". The Ethiopian government has not responded to repeated BBC requests for comment on the accusation. Across the river that straddles the border, about a dozen soldiers stand at intervals on hilltops looking in the direction of Tigray. Boats parked on both sides of what is usually a busy crossing point are largely unused. The number of refugees fleeing the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia - where federal and regional forces are engaged in fighting - has reduced drastically after soldiers were deployed to the border with Sudan. The BBC first spotted the soldiers on Wednesday, at the Hamdayet border crossing point, and has been hearing testimonies from refugees who say their relatives are being blocked from leaving Ethiopia. "I arrived yesterday morning and I wanted to go back home to bring my family here," said one man who did not want to be identified. Speaking on the banks of River Sittet in Hamdayet, he told the BBC he had been unable to return to Tigray to get his relatives because "there are soldiers on the border and those who had gone before me were asked not to return". The Ethiopian government has not responded to repeated BBC requests for comment on the accusation. Across the river that straddles the border, about a dozen soldiers stand at intervals on hilltops looking in the direction of Tigray. Boats parked on both sides of what is usually a busy crossing point are largely unused.