Situation 'worrying' for Darfur refugees in Chad: Red Cross

The Red Cross warned Wednesday that the situation for thousands of people who have fled to Chad from Sudan’s troubled Darfur region is alarming, saying there is an urgent need for shelter and medical supplies.

“Most of these people fled without taking anything with them,” said Helene Plennevaux of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“The situation of thousands of people... remains worrying.”  Since early April, the ICRC said, tens of thousands of Sudanese and Chadians have poured into the eastern Chadian city of Tissi because of clashes in western Darfur.

“The families, consisting mainly of women and children and sometimes elderly or disabled dependents, need shelter and emergency supplies,” Plennevaux said.

Some of those displaced have been seriously injured, and 18 people were in April airlifted to a regional hospital in the eastern city of Abeche for treatment, the ICRC said.

In late May, the United Nations’ humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said an estimated 300 000 people have fled fighting in Darfur this year.

That is more than in the previous two years combined, she said.

Darfur’s ethnic minorities rebelled against Sudan’s Arab-dominated regime in 2003, an insurgency initially met with brutal repression by the government-backed Janjaweed militia.

While the worst of Darfur’s violence has passed, instability has been complicated by ongoing fighting, kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes — many suspected to be the work of government-linked militia.