UN to move 40,000 Sudanese refugees deeper in Chad

Oct 10, 2006 (GENEVA) — The United Nations said on Tuesday it would urgently move more than 40,000 Sudanese refugees deeper into Chad after weekend fighting at the border.

Sudanese rebels opposed to a recent peace deal in Darfur clashed with government troops near Sudan’s border with Chad on Saturday, more “evidence of the destabilisation” in the volatile region, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The UNHCR, which runs Oure-Cassoni camp just 5 km (3 miles) from the border, said the Chad government agreed it could survey land near Biltine town to build new refugee sites further inland.

“The ongoing deterioration in security in Darfur and increasing insecurity throughout eastern Chad highlights the urgent need to move Sudanese refugees in Oure-Cassoni camp further away from the border,” UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva.

Oure-Cassoni camp holds 26,300 Sudanese refugees, while 16,500 compatriots staying in Am Nabak camp, some 18 km from the border, will also be moved, according to the agency.

The majority of UNHCR’s 12 camps in eastern Chad, which hold 213,000 Sudanese who have fled fighting at home, are at least 50 km inland — where Pagonis said refugees were less vulnerable to border clashes and attempts by rebel movements to recruit them.

She said UNHCR would try to identify new sites in the hostile, desert-like region with sufficient water and firewood.

“With the deteriorating of the security situation, it is now urgent that the relocation take place and we are preparing plans accordingly,” Pagonis said.

Another spokeswoman, Helene Caux, said the UNHCR hoped to move the refugees to existing camps or to temporary transit sites “within weeks”, until a proper camp site is developed.

(Reuters)