Darfur insecurity sparks new refugee influx to Chad

IRIDIMI/NAIROBI, Aug 16, 2004 (dpa) — An increased number of people have fled from Sudan’s Darfur region into neighbouring Chad in the last few days, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said Monday.

“We are currently registering around 500 new refugees who have come across during the last few days. That is a significant rise compared to the last few months”, UNHCR spokesman Eduardo Cue told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa on the telephone from Iridimi refugee camp in north-eastern Chad.

Some of the refugees were people who had fled to Chad early in the conflict, returned to Darfur when peace talks began, but again crossed over to Chad in recent days.

The refugees had told UNHCR the violence in Darfur has continued, and that their livestock had been looted.

“They seem to have lost hope that there will be peace in Darfur. They said they came back to Chad to survive”, said Cue. He was speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Iridimi refugee camp in north-eastern Chad.

According to U.N. figures, 184,000 people from Darfur have fled to Chad. Most of them are in camps, but some 15,000 have stayed close to the border.

In Khartoum, the semi-official Sudanese Media Centre quoted Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying safe areas for internally displaced people, agreed upon by Sudan and the U.N. last week, would be set up starting Monday.

The 20-kilometre wide safe zones would be set up around el-Fasher town in north Darfur, around Nyala in south Darfur, and around Geneina in western Darfur, s well as around several camps for displaced people.

In a statement late Sunday, the U.N. special envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said he was concerned about the “lack of progress” on the ground in Darfur, and urged the Sudanese government to translate its words into action and improve the security situation in the region.

Pronk also said he was concerned that the Janjaweed militias, accused of wreaking havoc among the civilian population in Darfur since last year, remained active.

Over the weekend, some 155 Rwanda troops arrived in Darfur as the first half of a force charged with protecting the African Union (A.U.) ceasefire monitors there.

The protection force has no mandate to protect civilians in Darfur, or attempt to disarm the Janjaweed militia.

Seeing the troops off in Rwandan capital Kigali, president Paul Kagame said he would support a larger force in Darfur with a stronger mandate.

The A.U. has proposed boosting the size of the force to 2,000 troops and giving it full peacekeeping status. This initiative has so far been strongly rejected by the Sudanese government.

Kagame however said the Rwandan soldiers would have to intervene if they witnessed civilians being targeted or killed.

On July 30, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding the Sudanese government disarm the Janjaweed and improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur, or face possible sanctions. The U.N. has so far ruled out military intervention.

Up to 50,000 people have died from violence, starvation and disease since the inception of the 18-month conflict in Darfur. At least 1.2 million people have been forced to flee from their homes, while 2 million are in acute need of food and medical attention.