Thousands more Sudanese refugees poor into Chad to escape fighting

N’DJAMENA, Chad, Feb 27, 2004 (AP) –Thousands more Sudanese refugees have poured into eastern Chad to escape fighting in neighboring western Sudan in recent weeks, a U.N. official said Friday.

Some 13,000 people, mostly women and children, from Sudan ‘s Darfur region crossed to the Chadian border town of Tine two weeks ago, and between 10,000 and 15,000 fled to Bahai, another border town 60 kilometers to the north, said Alphonse Malanda, head of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad.

“What they say is they fled because of the bombing by the Sudanese army. They had to abandon their belongings and came to Chad without anything,” Malanda said. “They need urgent humanitarian relief.”

A year-long rebellion in Darfur has killed thousands of people and forced more than 600,000 others to flee their homes, some 110,000 of whom have fled into eastern Chad, an impoverished, remote region that has few resources.

Rebels and refugees have accused the government of deliberately targeting civilians. The government has denied the allegations.

Aid groups have had little access to Darfur and details about the situation in the region have been sketchy.

Earlier this month, Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir claimed he had crushed the two rebels groups – the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement – and on Feb. 9 he said the army was in full control of Darfur.

But the rebels dismissed his claims, saying they were still fighting and were carrying out hit-and-run raids against government forces moving in the region.

Malanda said aid workers in Sudan have reported that major towns in Darfur are secure, but rural areas remain unsafe.

“The rebellion is still active,” he said.

The insurgency erupted last February and has intensified as peace talks between the government and southern rebels fighting a 21-year-long civil war have inched toward their conclusion. Those talks, staged in Kenya, resumed Feb. 17, but do not include the Darfur rebels.

The insurgents in Darfur, a dirt poor, underdeveloped region, say they are fighting for a greater share of power and wealth in Africa’s largest country -the same as the southern rebels.

Analysts have warned that the insurgency could derail the peace process between the government and the southern rebels.