U.N. refugee chief to visit attacked east Chad zone
Source: Reuters
By Betel Miarom N'DJAMENA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s top refugee official will try to reassure civilians and refugees in east Chad on Friday that they will not be abandoned to face murderous raids from gunmen on horseback who are terrorising the zone. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres will visit the area not far from the Sudan border where mounted Arab raiders attacked two villages near a UNHCR refugee camp at the weekend, killing both Sudanese refugees and Chadian civilians. The east of Chad borders with Sudan's Darfur region, where a political and ethnic conflict since 2003 has killed tens of thousands of people and spilled over into neighbouring states. "He wants to support the people who have been attacked recently, the refugees and the staff," UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux told Reuters on Wednesday by phone from eastern Chad. She said Guterres would hold talks with President Idriss Deby in N'Djamena on Thursday. The weekend clashes around the Goz Amer refugee camp, which included fighting with government troops, killed nearly 40 people between civilians, refugees, soldiers and gunmen. The attackers gouged out the eyes of some soldiers and disembowelled one civilian, the government said. Officials blamed the attacks on Janjaweed, a term loosely signifying "devils on horseback" in Arabic. It is used to designate Arab militiamen who have killed and raped civilians and plundered villages on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border. The weekend saw the latest outbreak in a storm of violence -- combining cross-border raids, inter-communal ethnic clashes and attacks by Chadian rebels -- which has swept across eastern Chad in recent months, causing chaos and killing hundreds. Chad accuses neighbouring Sudan of backing both the raids and the rebels, a charge denied by Khartoum. Caux said the recent attacks had badly shaken refugees in the Goz Amer camp, which houses some 18,000 Sudanese, part of around 232,000 refugees who have fled the violence in Darfur and are sheltering in UNHCR camps strung along the border region. "The refugees were very worried ... they feel very insecure," she said, adding Goz Amer was still vulnerable to attack although the Chadian army had reinforced its presence. U.N. agencies have pulled back staff from some towns hit by violence but UNHCR insists the refugees will continue to receive food, water, healthcare and basic necessities. The UNHCR and other relief organisations have been clamouring for an international security force in Chad to protect civilians and refugees and secure the porous border. The United Nations, which has been struggling to overcome Sudan's resistance to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, has said it is considering options for a possible separate deployment in Chad. (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Dakar)
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