Chad: UN starts new airlift of emergency supplies for Sudanese from Darfur

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today began a fresh wave of airlifts into Chad to bring food and emergency supplies to the more than 150,000 refugees who have fled fighting in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan.

A plane from Pakistan to the Chadian capital, N'Djamena - the first of 22 planned flights - will bring tents and food rations for the refugees, who are suffering from what the UN's senior officials have described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 16,000 tents are expected to be transferred as part of the current airlift.

UNHCR said that from Thursday it would start distributing food to about 30,000 refugees camped in the northern section of the border between Chad and Sudan. Refugees will receive 15 days of rations of rice, beans and oil, supplied by the World Food Programme (WFP).

Work has also begun on the construction of a ninth refugee camp in eastern Chad, well away from the border and the reach of Sudanese militias, which have been making cross-border raids.

The new camp at Oure Cassoni will provide extra shelter for the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Darfur. Already more than 113,000 people have been housed in eight safe camps across eastern Chad, according to UNHCR.

The refugees began leaving Darfur last year after fighting broke out between two rebel groups and Sudanese Government forces, and Arab militias known as the Janjaweed began attacking the local black African population. These irregular forces, which are allied to Khartoum, have committed documented human rights abuses, including murders, rapes and the ransacking and destruction of villages.

Last Friday Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is due to visit Darfur later this week and hold talks with Sudanese and Chadian officials, described the action of the Janjaweed as "bordering on ethnic cleansing."

Speaking today in Doha, Qatar, Mr. Annan said the current moves towards peace in the long-running civil war in southern Sudan will mean little until the conflict in Darfur is resolved. "We cannot talk of comprehensive peace in Sudan if the fighting and the gross and systematic human rights abuses in west Sudan, in the Darfur region, continues," he said.

Meanwhile, WFP's attempts to bring relief within Darfur are being hampered by the rainy season, which is making many roads impassable. Airdrops are now being arranged to those areas out of reach by road.

The agency has opened offices or food storage sites in 10 towns across Darfur, whose inhabitants face the threat of water-borne diseases during the rainy season.

In a statement issued yesterday, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it has opened 14 centres for malnourished children across Darfur since the start of May, and is on schedule to supply 600,000 people with clean water by the end of August.