UNHCR shifting Darfur IDPs to Safer Areas inside Chad

{{The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has started moving thousands of displaced Sudanese civilians who fled across the border from violence in Darfur to safer areas further inside Chad.}}

Some 23,000 Sudanese refugees, including dozens of wounded, have fled to the remote Chad border town of Tissi following tribal clashes across Darfur.
A further 16,000 Chadian who were living in the conflict zone have also come across the border.

The refugee agency says it has now started moving thousands of civilians, mainly women and children, to camps deeper inside Chad as a safety precaution.

“As a security measure, UNHCR is relocating 5,000 of them [refugees] to the Goz Amer camp [about 230 kilometres to the north] where we can better provide them with protection and assistance,” said Aminata Gueye, UNHCR’s representative in Chad. She added that a new camp for 25,000 people may be constructed at Sterena, 25kms north of Goz Beida, the largest town in the south-east.

The numbers of displaced civilians arriving in south-east Chad have increased in recent weeks as tribal conflict escalated across the border in Um Dukhun.

UNHCR has set up a temporary office in Tissi and is monitoring new arrivals along a 60-kilometre stretch of the border in conjunction with Chadian authorities.

The agency has also deployed experts in water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as protection, registration and logistics officers.

Conditions at Tissi remain harsh, with many of the newly-arrived refugees taking shelter from the elements under trees, having been provided only limited assistance.

“Under every tree, there is a family,” explained Abdellahi Ould El Bah, UNHCR’s emergency coordinator in Tissi in a statement on Tuesday. “The refugees are exposed to the wind and sun during the day and are cold at night,” he said, adding that many did not even have blankets.

Climatic extremes add to the difficulties faced by new arrivals at the makeshift camp, said the UNHCR, with temperatures in the semi-arid region soaring during the day before dipping under 20 degrees Celsius at night.

{ST}