- Janjaweed militias are still attacking civilians in Sudan's Darfur provinces, the UN reports. Hundreds of Sudanese are currently fleeing attacks by these government-supported militias, engaged in an ethnic cleansing campaign in western Sudan.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR today informed that hundreds of displaced are still arriving eastern Chad from neighbouring Darfur each week. UNHCR struggles to transfer the refugees to camps well away from the Chadian border before the rainy season begins and transportation becomes close to impossible.
More than 80,900 Darfurians living in the seven Chadian camps so far, according to UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski, who spoke to the press in Geneva this afternoon. The figure is up from some 78,000, the total UNHCR gave last Friday. And the numbers are steadily rising.
In the Sennette area, near the Chadian border town of Birak, a UNHCR team is pre-registering 250 new refugees, who said the Janjaweed militia had attacked their villages last Saturday afternoon, Mr Janowski said. The UNCHR spokesman more than indicated that the UN agency took these refugees' reports as proof of continued Janjaweed actions against civilians.
The refugees had said that, "as the militia began looting the houses, the women fled with their children." They thus had walked all night before reaching the border and crossing over to Chad. They had been living in makeshift shelters that they built up around trees and are now running out of food, Mr Janowski said. They are now slated to be relocated further west in Mille camp (Chad).
This is the first proof of continued Janjaweed militia action presented after the UN Security Council last week demanded Sudanese authorities to disarm the militias. It has earlier been documented that the Janjaweed militias are working hand in hand with Sudanese government troops and officials, who also are said to have armed them.
The "Arab" Janjaweed militias during half a year have organised an ethnic cleansing campaign in Sudan's western Darfur region, which is populated by "black African" peoples. The campaign includes looting and burning of villages, destruction of crops, water sources and livestock and mass-rape on Darfurian women.
The ethnic cleansing campaign is reported to have victimised two million Darfurians. More than one million civilians have had to leave their homes. Many of them have entered neighbouring Chad, where the UN and humanitarian organisations are in a better position to help the displaced than within Darfur.
Mr Janowski today also announced the start-up of another food distribution site in Chad. In the village of Bahai, UNHCR and its partners are to distribute sorghum, oil and beans among another newly registered group of more than 14,000 refugees.
Meanwhile, the existing camp in Kounoungo, which houses over 8,200 refugees, would be extended to shelter a further 4,000, Mr Janowski said. "Kounoungo has sufficient water supplies to meet the needs of over 12,000 refugees," the UNHCR spokesman added.
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