By Prensa Latina
United Nations : The UN agency for refugees will move thousands of violence-plagued Darfur inhabitants to safe areas in Chad.
“We are moving these people to safety inside Chad, far from the conflict along the border with the Sudanese border of Darfur,” said a spokeswoman of the High UN Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Jennifer Pagonis.
“The volatile situation along the Chad-Sudan border continues to be tense,” Pagonis added in declarations circulated in the agency’s headquarters in New York.
According to this report, at least 13,000 persons have sought refuge in the eastern locality of Chad, Birak, after escaping Sudanese air and army attacks against western Darfur, during the beginning of the month.
A second flight to move parts of these refugees to other localities far from the border with Sudan was suddenly cancelled due to an increase in clashes between Sudanese government troops and rebel forces.
“This means that there will be more displaced persons because of the violence,” Pagonis added.
According to UNHCR estimates close to 70 percent of the new arrivals placed in Birak are women and children.
UNHCR has indicated that moving these persons to safety is particularly complex because the new arrivals are displaced in 11 villages that are far apart, along the 40 kilometers of border between Chad and Sudan. The refugees are lodged in camps in the Chad locality of Kounoungou, about 70 kilometers from the Sudanese border.
These new arrivals receive medical attention and a ration of food for a month through the World Food Program as well as other sources of aid.
The UNHCR jointly with other UN humanitarian agencies operates 12 camps in eastern Chad with more than 240,000 refugees who have escaped violence in Darfur.
There are three other camps in southern Chad for 50,000 refugees due to conflicts in the Central African Republic.