Thousands of refugees flee Darfur after bombings

UP TO 12,000 refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region have fled across the border to neighbouring Chad after the latest air strikes by the Sudanese military and thousands more may be on their way, the UN refugee agency said yesterday.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was scrambling to rush aid to refugees who are escaping bombings on Friday of the west Darfur towns of Sirba, Sileia and Abu Suruj.

About half of the refugees are in the Chad border city of Koruk and “are feeling terrified”, said UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux.

“The city is in a very volatile area and there are a lot of armed men there,” Ms Caux said.

“Their villages [in Sudan] have been looted and burned, they are telling the UNHCR team.”

Most of the refugees so far are men, she said. But the arrivals are telling UNHCR that “thousands of women and children are on their way” to Chad, she added.

So far, officials have been unable to reach all the refugees around Koruk. An roughly equal number of refugees have gathered in the Chad town of Figeira. UNHCR is hoping to move the refugees to different camps the agency runs in Chad, Ms Caux said.

UN officials say the worsening situation in Darfur has been exacerbated by a recent rebel attack on the capital of neighbouring Chad. Chad has accused Sudan of backing those rebels in an attempt to prevent deployment of European peacekeepers in an area of Chad where some 400,000 refugees are living.

The Sudanese army said its attacks forced rebels to retreat into Chad, a provocative accusation at a time of escalating tension between the two countries.