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Chad reports 65 dead in Sudanese militia raids--UN
03 Apr 2007 10:35:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
(adds details on Janjaweed attacks, number of wounded)

GENEVA, April 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday Chadian military authorities reported at least 65 people were killed in one of two villages in east Chad attacked by Sudanese Janjaweed militia at the weekend.

"Chadian military authorities reported at least 65 dead just in the village of Tiero," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva.

The death toll was expected to rise as casualty figures from Marena, the other village attacked on Saturday, were expected later in the day, he said.

"The testimony so far from the victims indicates that the attack was led by 'Janjaweed' militia who were repelled by local self-defence militias and some national army soldiers," Redmond said.

At least 2,000 people reached the Goz Amir refugee camp near Koukou, some 45 kms (28 miles) west of the two villages, according to UNHCR.

Among those at least 70 were wounded in the attacks, about half of them seriously. Those were evacuated to Goz Beida hospital an hour away, it said.

"Survivors interviewed by UNHCR said their villages were surrounded by men on horseback and camelback, as well as many motor vehicles, some of which were equipped with heavy weaponry. The assailants began to fire at random in the villages and then began pursuing the fleeing population," he said.

The militias then fled towards the Sudanese border.

Goz Amir camp is already home to more than 19,000 Sudanese refugees who fled violence in the neighbouring Darfur region.

"The majority of the civilian population arriving at Goz Amir is comprised of women and children. They say that many people are still hiding in the bush, fearful that their assailants might still be in the area," Redmond said.
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Palestinian artist Said Helmi puts the finishing touches to a statue depicting the Dome of the Rock Mosque in his workshop in al-Aroub refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Hebron, May 15, 2007. Palestinians mark Nakba on Tuesday as a day of mourning for the establishment of Israel in 1948, after which an Arab-Israeli war brought the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.



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