180 reported dead in Chad near to Darfur in past week- UN
Nov 17, 2006 (GENEVA) — The U.N. said Friday it has received reports that as many as 180 people have been killed over the past week in areas of Chad bordering Sudan’s volatile region of Darfur.
The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said the reports describe armed men on horseback attacking, looting and burning several villages in southeastern Chad, forcing hundreds to flee their homes. More than 300 people may have been killed in raids there since Oct. 31, a statement said.
“The testimonies are harrowing, including reports of babies, children, the elderly and infirm being burned alive in their houses because they were unable to flee,” said Ron Redmond, spokesman for U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres.
“In one village, seven children were burned alive, according to residents. In another, a paralyzed man was trapped in his home and burned to death. The survivors are in a state of shock.”
The landlocked and impoverished African country is currently in a state of emergency, declared after a series of deadly clashes between Arab and non-Arab Chadians along the Darfur border. The violence has sparked fears that Darfur’s conflict could destabilize the entire region.
“I am deeply concerned that the horrendous violence that has been wracking Darfur is affecting Chad,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. “Action must be taken immediately to stop a full-blown human rights crisis in southeastern Chad.”
In Darfur, ethnic African tribes accusing the central government of neglect launched a rebellion three years ago, following years of low-level tribal clashes over land and water. The government is accused of responding by unleashing ethnic Arab tribal militias, which have been linked to atrocities.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced since fighting began in Darfur in early 2003.
Arabs, among them slave traders, first reached sub-Saharan Africa more than a century ago. Intermarriage and the embrace of Islam by many Africans have blurred identities, but an Arab-African divide persists. It is exacerbated by a lack of resources in the region, pitting communities against each other in a competition for water and land.
Redmond said witnesses described the recent attacks as following a pattern of villages being surrounded by armed men, some in military uniforms, riding on horses and camels and wielding rocket-propelled grenades. He said survivors have described the assailants as Arab nomadic tribesmen from both Chad and Sudan.
“Some of the internally displaced are trying to quickly get back to their villages to salvage grain and other belongings,” he told reporters at the U.N. in Geneva. “But several of them have been attacked, killed or wounded in doing so.”
Redmond said the U.N. refugee agency’s reports show 23 villages in Chad being attacked over the past two weeks. He estimated that 12,000 Chadians have fled their villages in the latest round of violence.
There are some 218,000 Darfur refugees living in 12 UNHCR camps in eastern Chad.
(AP)