Chad: 7th camp opens for Sudanese

On Wednesday, UNHCR opened a new camp - the seventh so far - to relocate Sudanese refugees who have fled into the border area of eastern Chad. In all, nearly 75,000 refugees have found safety, assistance and shelter at the seven camps set up to date further inside Chad. The majority have come to the camps on convoys we have been organizing from the various makeshift border sites, but some 10,000 have made their own way to the camps after hearing that help was available away from the border.

The new camp is located in Breidjing, near the previously established camp at Farchana, 55 km from the border town of Adré. So far, 187 refugees have been transported by truck from the border. Upon arrival at the camp, refugees received kitchen sets, mats and jerry cans. They also received food rations provided by WFP. In total, UNHCR has pre-positioned 40 tons of food in the nearby Farchana camp to be distributed to the refugees in Farchana and Breidjing.

In all, Farchana now shelters 13,360 refugees, Touloum camp has 17,787, Iridimi has 14,819, Kounoungo has 8,271, Mille has 2,073, Goz Amer 18,143 and Breidjing 187, bringing to a total of 74,640 refugees relocated to date.

At the same time, we are following closely the situation of some 27,000 refugees in the northernmost part of the affected border zone, around Bahai and Kariari. We are reinforcing our presence in Bahai with the arrival today of an additional international staff member who will work there as a field officer. We have also just signed an agreement with the British NGO Oxfam, who will be in charge of water and sanitation works in the site of Kariari. Water will be pumped from the nearby lake and purified for the needs of the refugees. UNHCR and its partners are working on an eight-week plan to move the refugees from Bahai further north to the Kariari area. This plan should be completed before the rainy season which starts later in the north.