U.N. Security Council raises concern over Sudan fighting

NEW YORK, April 2, 2004 (dpa) — The United Nations Security Council voiced “deep concern” Friday over the humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur region, where fighting has sent thousands of Sudanese refugees into neighbouring Chad.

“The members expressed their deep concern over the massive humanitarian crisis there,” said German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, the current president of the 15-nation Security Council, following discussion on the situation in Sudan.

Pleuger said that council members urged warring parties to cooperate in protecting civilians and allowing relief workers to reach people in need.

Chad and the African Union, backed by the United States, the U.N. and European Union, are holding talks in N’djamena to try to work out a humanitarian ceasefire and a political settlement to the fighting.

The U.N. reported that some 110,000 Sudanese have fled in recent months from Darfur into Chad, causing enormous logistical problems in refugee camps along the border between the two countries. It said that the refugees are victims also of attacks by armed Sudanese militiamen who crossed the border into Chad.

U.N. humanitarian agencies on Friday appealed for 30 million dollars to assist Sudanese refugees in the coming months.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees were moved into five U.N.-run camps in eastern Chad since January, overwhelming available resources at those sites. It said that the U.N. is forced to look for new locations away from the border, which has become insecure because of the fighting spilling over from Sudan.