UN arrives team to help Sudanese refugees in Chad


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News Article by AFP posted on September 19, 2003 at 15:26:55: EST (-5 GMT)

UN arrives team to help Sudanese refugees in Chad

GENEVA, Sept 19 (AFP) -- A United Nations relief team has reached the remote community of Abeche in the African state of Chad to organise relief aid for some 65,000 refugees fleeing fighting in neighbouring Sudan, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said here Friday.

A four-man group arrived Thursday to help victims of fighting in the Darfour region in western Sudan, the eastern neighbour of the largely desert state of Chad in central Africa.

Fighting between Sudanese rebels and government forces in Darfour has displaced some 400,000 people since the beginning of this year, according to the UN.

The team's most urgent task was "to cooperate with local authorities to regroup refugees in at least four centres," said UNHCR spokeswoman Delphine Marie.

The rainy season had made the task particularly difficult because roads were cut off in some places, she said.

The agency quoted local authorities as saying there had been an attack on a Chadian border village called Tine, where a group of refugees had been located. The refugees were refusing to return home east to Sudan because they feared for their safety.

UNHCR also announced it was completing preparations for a first flight of supplies for 40,000 refugees based in Chad.

The consignment from Ngara in Tanzania was scheduled to arrive in the Chad capital Ndjamena at the start of the coming week.