UN envoy to Sudan asks for $4 million for refugees who have fled to Chad

The United Nations envoy to Sudan has appealed to a working group of international donors to give $4.3 million to help some 95,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled the country's war-torn Darfur region and taken shelter inside neighbouring Chad.

The United Nations envoy to Sudan today appealed to a working group of international donors to give $4.3 million to help some 95,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled the country's war-torn Darfur region and taken shelter inside neighbouring Chad.

Tom Eric Vraalsen, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs for Sudan, issued his request in Geneva to a meeting of the Humanitarian Liaison Working Group, a gathering of 25 nations that donate regularly to emergency appeals from the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Mr. Vraalsen has just returned from a visit to Chad, where he toured the makeshift camps along the Sudanese border that have been home to tens of thousands of people since fighting erupted in Darfur early last year.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is preparing to move many of the refugees to newly constructed camps further inside Chad in a bid to protect them from repeated cross-border raids by Sudanese militias.

"The humanitarian situation in Darfur is very serious," Mr. Vraalsen told the donors. "Without a rapid response, the conditions of those refugees will deteriorate rapidly."

So far the refugees have been relying on support from Chad, UN agencies and the local population as they escape from a conflict between the Sudanese Government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Many refugees arriving in Chad have reported repeated killings and lootings by local armed militias in Darfur.

Mr. Vraalsen's call for support from donors is separate from earlier UN appeals aimed at generating funds to assist the 1 million Sudanese left displaced inside Darfur's three provinces by the conflict.