U.N. says 120,000 Sudanese in Chad, needs more funds
GENEVA, May 14 (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Friday more Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict in Darfur had arrived in Chad and appealed for funds to move them further away from cross-border militia raids.
The U.N. refugee agency said it had already moved 68,000 Sudanese to camps in Chad’s interior, but was racing to resettle the rest before heavy rains turn roads to mud in a few weeks.
It said about 120,000 were now in Chad, up about 10,000 from its previous estimate of Sudanese having fled across the border since February 2003.
They escaped fighting in the western Darfur region, where aid officials say Arab militias, backed by the Sudanese military, have been killing, raping and looting in a region where rebels launched a revolt last year.
Sudan has denied its involvement but several human rights groups have said its army backs the militias. Chad said on Sunday militias had carried out fresh incursions into its territory and warned the Khartoum government to stop such attacks.
“It is vital that we move people quickly away from the border as the border situation is very tense. Refugees are under threat of incursions from the Sudanese side,” Kris Janowski, of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters.
“An urgent injection of new funds is crucial to keep our programmes running and meet the looming deadline of the onset of heavy rains that will block roads and cut access to the refugees.”
An estimated one million people are displaced within Darfur, the largest humanitarian emergency facing the world, according to the United Nations.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers is expected to discuss Darfur next week with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington, the U.N. spokesman said.
The U.N. refugee agency said it had spent all of the $13 million it had received towards its appeal for $21 million for the Darfur refugees. The United States is the largest donor, having contributed $5 million to its operation this year.