Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
N’Djamena (Agenzia Fides) - UNHCR remains extremely concerned over the security situation in eastern Chad, where there are more than 220,000 Darfur refugees and now over 100,000 internally displaced Chadians - 20,000 of them uprooted within the past three weeks.
While there has been a decrease in fighting between the Chadian army and opposition forces, intercommunal conflict continues in south-eastern parts of the country near the border with Sudan's Darfur region. More than 10,000 Chadians have been driven from their homes in cross-border attacks by alleged Janjaweed militia in the Borota region, and another 10,000 have fled more than 20 villages and are now gathered in the town of Gassire, 8 km north of Goz Beida.
This insecurity is now posing a direct threat to refugee camps housing thousands of Sudanese from Darfur. Humanitarian agencies, whose activities had already been reduced because of the insecurity, are now severely over-stretched.. Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has said the government will send troops to restore security in eastern Chad and said his government had made available 4 billion francs CFA (about US $8 million) for assistance to Chadian internally displaced.
There are 220,000 refugees from Darfur in 12 UNHCR-run camps in eastern Chad as well as 46,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in southern Chad (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/1/2007 righe 27 parole 292)
