Chad’s president reverses threat to send refugees to Darfur

CHAD’S president has reversed earlier threats by officials to forcibly return Sudanese refugees to their country’s volatile Darfur region after allegations that Chadian rebels have recruited fighters from the camps, the UN refugee chief said yesterday.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres urged the international community to make every effort to bring peace to Darfur, saying security there is essential for the stability of the entire region, including Chad.

Peace in Darfur would also “preserve the security of refugees and internally displaced people in Darfur and Chad, and potentially in other countries of the region,” Guterres said after talking with President Idriss Deby by telephone from Geneva on Sunday night.