3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless following fire in Chad camp

3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless following fire in Chad camp
April 11, 2008 (ABECHE, Chad) –- A fire swept through part of the remote Goz Amer refugee camp in eastern Chad on Friday, leaving some 3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless, the UNHCR reported.

10 people were slightly injured, and many refugees lost all their food rations and meagre belongings.

The cause of the midday blaze was believed to be an untended cooking fire which spread rapidly, fanned by high winds.

“Everybody around, refugees and all our partners alike, rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish the fire with whatever they had – clothes, extinguishers and water,” said Emmanuel Uwurukundo, UNHCR’s acting head of office in nearby Koukou-Angarana.

Goz Amer, about 40 kms from the Chadian town of Goz Beida and 70 kms from the Sudanese border, has a population of about 20,500 refugees. It is the southernmost of 12 UNHCR-run camps along a 600-km stretch of the Chad-Sudan border housing more than 240,000 Darfur refugees.

The refugee agency also helps some 180,000 internally displaced Chadians in the east. The remoteness of the vast and sometimes insecure area makes it one of UNHCR’s most logistically challenging operations anywhere.

On Saturday morning, tents and more aid supplies, including sleeping mats, blankets and kitchen sets, will be distributed. UNHCR has also asked its partner, the World Food Programme, to deliver an extra monthly food ration to those whose homes were destroyed during the fire.

Many of the refugees constructed traditional stick and mud shelters to replace UNHCR tents they received when they first arrived in 2004. The traditional huts were easily ignited in Friday’s blaze. Uwurukundu said bricks should be used in future to avoid such incidents.

(ST)