GENEVA, Switzerland, March 20 (UPI) -- The U.N. refugee agency is moving hundreds of Chadians from an unstable border area to a camp deeper in Sudan at the refugees' request.
A first convoy of 14 trucks carrying 221 Chadian refugees and their donkeys departed Saturday from the border village of Arara, arriving the following day at Um Shalaya camp, about 50 miles from the border and 40 miles from El Geneina, capital of Sudan's West Darfur province, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Tuesday. A second convoy was set to depart Tuesday.
Approximately 20,000 Chadian refugees have crossed the border to Darfur since the end of 2005, escaping the increasing presence of armed groups, Ron Redmond, the spokesman, told reporters in Geneva.
Some 16,000 decided to remain close to the border to have better access to their lands and to be able to return quickly to Chad once the security situation allows. But after deterioration of the security situation, hundreds in recent weeks have decided to join 3,800 Chadian refugees already living in Um Shalaya, which UNHCR opened in May 2006.
At least 2 million people have been displaced in Darfur and 230,000 Sudanese refugees remain in 12 UNHCR camps in eastern Chad and along border areas as a result of the conflict which started in Darfur in early 2003 and has already led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people.
