U.N. refugee agency helping Sudanese

GENEVA, Switzerland, Mar 23, 2004 (UPI) — The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has opened a fourth safe camp for Sudanese inside Chad and is close to setting up a fifth camp.

Spokesman Kris Janowski of UNHCR Tuesday told reporters at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva the camps in neighboring Chad are designed to help the tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who have crossed the border to escape conflict in Darfur, in the west of Sudan.

Some 367 refugees were transferred to a camp at Iridimi during the weekend, he said. Iridimi’s first arrivals mean nearly 13,000 refugees have now been transferred to four camps. The others are living at camps in Touloum, Farchana and Kounoungo.

The spokesman said the camps were set up by the U.N. agency and non-governmental organizations well away from the Chad-Sudan border, where an estimated 110,000 refugees have been staying since fleeing Sudan. Sudanese militias had been attacking the border shelters.