AFRICA/CHAD - Race against time in Chad to transfer 10,000 Central African refugees to safety before the rain season

Monday, 18 July 2005

Rome (Agenzia Fides)- In a race against time before the rain season hampers the operation, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR and partner agencies have started the relocation of the first of 10,000 Central African refugees from a remote border area of southern Chad to Amboko camp in the interior.
In the operation 3 trucks had to make their way through flooded areas to pick up the first 97 refugees around the village of Betel where there are 3,000 refugees. The convoy, escorted by Chad security guards because of the threat of attacks by bandits and rebels, took five hours to travel 75 km. Another 229 refugees were moved during a thunderstorm on 8 trucks to Amboko. The trucks were provided by the International Red Cross and Red Cross in Chad.
On arrival at Amboko the refugees mainly women and children were registered by UNHCR and the National Commission for Assistance and Integration. The UN World Food Programme Food distributed beans, oil and sugar while UNHCR supplied matresses, water cans and cooking utensils.
These refugees are part of a group of 10,000 people who fled to Chad last month to escape violence between army troops and gangs of armed men in the north of the Central African Republic infested with bandits and rebels. People waiting to be transferred to Amboko live in difficult conditions in 17 villages on the Chad side of the border, many in shelters made of leaves and branches. UNHCR hopes to move them all to one site as soon as possibile before the floods which would leave them isolated. Amboko camp which already hosts 13,000 refugees who fled Central African Republic following a military coup in 2003, can accomodate up to 27,000. The Chad government has assigned another area of land where UNHCR will set up a temporary transit centre. UNHCR hopes to complete the transfer operation in three weeks. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 18/7/2005 righe 34 parole 414)


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