New York, Jan 24: The United Nations refugee
agency is monitoring the border between Chad and Sudan
following reports that 18,000 additional Sudanese refugees
have crossed into Chad this week to escape fighting in the
Darfur region.
The new refugees join some 95,000 other Sudanese who
have fled to Chad since early last year after conflict erupted
in Darfur, in western Sudan, between the Sudanese government
and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
have been registering the new arrivals and providing them with
supplies of blankets, jerry cans and food.
A UNHCR spokesman, Kris Janowski, said yesterday the
refugees told local agency staff that Sudanese forces attacked
10 villages in Darfur early in the morning Friday last week,
burning houses and dynamiting wells. Many people fled
immediately and told the UNHCR they fear for their lives if
they return to Darfur.
The refugees are scattered along the border in
makeshift shelters, although some are reported to have headed
further inside Chad.
Last week UNHCR began relocating refugees to newly
constructed camps inside Chad to protect them from
cross-border raids by Sudanese militias. So far 621 people
have been transferred to a camp at Farchana.
Bureau Report
