Over 5,000 Central Africans Uprooted By Violence

Chad: UN Registers Over 5,000 Central Africans Uprooted By Violence

New York, Mar 18 2009 5:10PM The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered more than 5,200 refugees in Chad who fled intensified fighting between Government forces and rebels in the north of their native Central African Republic (CAR) last December.

These refugees are sheltering in the village of Daha in south-eastern Chad, roughly one kilometre from the border with the CAR.

UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP) have distributed food to refugees this week, marking the second time they have received rations since their arrival in Chad.

Over 100 children have been enrolled at the local school and classes have started in two new facilities built by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which has also trained teachers.

In addition, the agency has begun handing out high-protein biscuits to all children in the two camps in Daha, while it has begun constructing five wells for both refugees and the host population.

Due to wide-spread fighting and armed banditry in recent years in the CAR, some 200,000 Central Africans have been either internally displaced by the violence or forced to live as refugees in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

ENDS

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