UN envoy to Sudan advises relocating Darfur refugees further into Chad

Some 95,000 Sudanese refugees living in Chad should be moved further away from the insecure border while relief aid must be delivered to them more quickly, the United Nations envoy to Sudan has advised after visiting the affected area.

Tom Eric Vraalsen, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs for Sudan, announced his recommendations after holding talks with Chadian Government officials and the local staff of UN relief agencies.

Mr. Vraalsen said the refugees should be relocated further inside Chad to avoid repeated raids by armed Sudanese militias on their temporary camps near the border between the two countries. The militias have been stealing cattle and other livestock from the refugees, who have fled the conflict-torn Darfur region of western Sudan in large numbers since early last year.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun plans to relocate the refugees to interior camps, with the first of the sites expected to be ready to absorb up to 9,000 refugees in 10 days' time.

UNHCR is being helped by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and several non-governmental organizations in setting up the camps and providing blankets and food for the refugees.

Mr. Vraalsen called for humanitarian aid to be delivered more quickly to the refugees ahead of the approach of the rainy season in June, when weather conditions are expected to make reliable deliveries in the region almost impossible.

The civil war in Darfur between the Sudanese Government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) continues to rage, with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimating that 1 million of Darfur's 6 million people have been directly affected by the conflict.

Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad have been reporting harrowing stories of attacks by militia groups on their home villages in Darfur, with accounts of murders, rapes and looting sprees by armed bandits.

Recent peace talks failed to renew a ceasefire in the conflict, which comes as the Sudanese Government and rebel groups in Sudan's south, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), have begun to make progress on an agreement to end their 20-year civil war.