By DPA
Geneva : The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) launched an appeal Friday for $40.3 million to help protect refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2008.
The money is more than double the budget for 2007, reflecting its greater role in Darfur, a UNHCR spokesman said.
It would be used to help some 2.5 million displaced people as well as 47,500 refugees from Chad and the Central African Republic who had fled inter-ethnic conflicts in their own countries.
The funds would be used for monitoring the well-being of refugees and returnees in accessible villages, providing rehabilitation programmes in rural areas and strengthening UNHCR’s role in camp management.
UNHCR currently has 31 international and 74 national staff based in Darfur.