UN aid worker shot and wounded in eastern Chad near Sudan

May 6, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — A United Nations aid worker was shot and wounded in eastern Chad after being pulled from her car in a volatile region near the Sudanese border, the agency said Saturday.

Sylvaen Ndakas of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said the French woman, who was attacked in Abeche on Friday night, was taken to the capital of N’Djamena and hospitalized. Details of her condition were not released.

Eastern Chad has been a staging ground for rebels looking to topple President Idriss Deby, who faced only token opposition in Wednesday’s presidential election.

Unrest also has spilled over from Sudan’s Darfur conflict, which the U.N. calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

On Friday, Sudan and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace plan that includes a call for disarmament of militias accused of some of the war’s worst atrocities.

Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when rebels from black African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as the Janjaweed against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson _ a charge the government denies.

The conflict has killed about 180,000 people — mostly through disease and hunger — and displaced 2 million. Hundreds of thousands have taken shelter in eastern Chad.