U.N. aid agencies face massive shortfall for Sudanese refugees in Chad
By JONATHAN FOWLER Associated Press Writer
GENEVA, Jan 30, 2004 (AP) — United Nations aid agencies said Friday that they are facing a massive funding shortfall as they attempt to help more than 100,000 people who have fled fighting in western Sudan.
Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the agency is seeking around US$16 million to help Sudanese who have crossed the border into Chad.
“So far we have not received any contributions for the Chad emergency for 2004,” Janowski told reporters. “Funds are urgently needed because we are in a race against time to relocate refugees from the volatile border area to safer sites inside Chad.”
Peace talks have reached their final stages to end Sudan’s 21-year civil war between the Islamic government and rebels in the south of Africa’s largest nation. But a smaller insurgency in the western Darfur region, along the border with Chad, has worsened in recent months.
The rebels and refugees accuse the government of deliberately bombing villages in Sudan and using militias to ransack towns and villages, driving ordinary people into Chad, allegations Sudanese authorities deny.
UNHCR estimates that there are around 113,000 Sudanese inside Chad, and that figure could rise to as much as 135,000. Aid groups say the violence has forced more than 600,000 people to flee their homes, mostly to other parts of Sudan.
The conflict has also spilled into Chad. On Thursday, aid officials said Sudanese forces bombed the Chadian side of a border town, killing two people and injuring 15.
UNHCR officials are registering refugees and have started moving them to camps away from the border. But so far the agency only has been able to truck 1,000 people to safety.
Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program, said her agency needed US$11 million to help the refugees. It has received just US$3.6 million, from the United States and Switzerland, she said.
“This has all the ingredients of a humanitarian crisis,” Berthiaume told reporters. “The refugees lack food and shelter and have no firewood or water. They can’t rely on local residents because they are living in poverty and have only avoided famine themselves thanks to humanitarian aid.”
On Thursday in Geneva, the U.N. human rights chief called on all sides in the Sudan conflict to cease fighting. He said systematic human rights abuses against unarmed civilians have been reported in the region.