Chad urged the United Nations on Wednesday to remove tens of thousands of refugees from its volatile eastern border with Sudan, saying that would help improve security in the region.
Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi said the government wants the refugees moved to camps deep within the country, about 500km from the eastern border.
”The Chad government thinks it is essential to remove in the weeks or months to come the Sudanese refugee camps installed in our country,” he told diplomats, UN officials and journalists at the country’s Foreign Ministry. The move would also help quell allegations that Chad is encouraging Sudanese rebels groups who use the camps as rear bases, he said.
Peter Kessler, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached in London, said UN officials would speak to the Chadian government on Thursday about the relocation proposal.
”UNHCR is not, in principle, opposed to the idea of relocating several of the camps,” Kessler added in an e-mailed statement, saying the UN had been trying to move two camps because they were close to the Darfur border.
”We do need to make sure that any proposed new sites have adequate access to resources like water, good access to roads, good security and are likely to have good relations with the local host population,” Kessler said. ”We are also concerned about the financial implications and would need donors to support this proposed move, and refugees themselves to agree to move peaceably, too.”
The UNHCR is among several UN and other aid agencies that have long warned that the three-year-old war in Sudan’s Darfur could destabilise a wide area. The UNHCR also has expressed concern in recent months at deteriorating security for refugees and humanitarian workers in Chad, reporting forced recruitment by armed groups in several camps and infiltration of the camps by Darfur rebels.
Evacuation
A day earlier, Chadian government spokesperson Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor had called on the UN and African Union to evacuate Sudanese refugees from camps near the border. Doumgor claimed some refugees were working for the Sudanese government to destabilise Chad.
In response to Doumgor’s comments, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Marcus Prior, whose UN agency helps feed the refugees along the Sudanese border, said the WFP was ”concerned only in ensuring the many thousands of Darfuris who fled into Chad have enough food to stay alive — they are almost completely dependent on outside help for their daily needs”.
”Ever since the camps were established, the humanitarian community has worked closely with the Chadian authorities to ensure their civilian nature,” Prior added in a statement.
There are about 218 000 refugees from Sudan’s Darfur, which neighbours eastern Chad, and about 90 000 internally displaced Chadians in camps close to the border.
On Wednesday, Allam-mi also reiterated remarks made by a Chad official on Tuesday that the country was in ”a state of war” with Sudan, repeated accused by Chad of backing Chadian rebels in the border region. Sudan denies the allegations and counters that Chad is backing rebels in Sudan’s Darfur.
Allam-mi, however, insisted Chad was not declaring war on Sudan.
Instability
Unrest in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region is blamed for increased instability across a large area. Rebels bent on toppling Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno have clashed sporadically with the government since 2005. The competition for power has become more intense since Chad began exporting oil in 2004.
The Chadian rebels have been able to exploit volatility in Sudan, establishing rear bases in Darfur. Besides the rebellion, Chad’s government has in recent weeks reported violence pitting ethnic Arab Chadians against ethnic African Chadians, mirroring ethnic clashes in Darfur. Chad accused Sudan of instigating the clashes. Both Chad and Sudan deny they are backing rebel forces.
Rebels in the Central African Republic, which shares a border with Darfur, also have stepped up attacks in recent months. Chad’s Parliament recently voted to allow Chad to send troops to help the Central African Republic fight its rebels, and Chad’s prime minister accused Sudan of helping the Central African Republic rebels.
On Tuesday, Ibrahima Fall, a special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, described the Central African Republic as ”a tragedy in the making”. — Sapa-AP