This round rug is made of wicker cane with protrusion and comes from Kassala in eastern Sudan. It was crafted during 2006.
Sudan has been a major asylum country for long. The country has a long record of generously hosting refugees and used to be home to over 1 million of them, mainly, from the Republic of South Sudan (not to be confused with Sudan), Eritrea, Syria, and Ethiopia, as well as the Central African Republic, Chad and Yemen. At the same time, over 3.7 million Sudanese have been forcefully displaced internally over the years and another 800,000 have fled to other countries, as a result of conflicts or other violent events.
By the 2023 World Refugee Day (20 June), more than 500,000 people had fled the fighting in Sudan to neighboring countries, namely, Egypt, Chad, Central African Republic, the Republic of South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Kassala State is located in eastern Sudan and shares a border with Eritrea and Ethiopia. Over 108,000 refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia live in five refugee camps in the state. Inter-tribal conflict, flooding, drought, disease outbreaks and economic inflation are the main drivers of humanitarian needs in Kassala. In the past, the State used to be a honeymoon destination for Sudanese couples.