High Commissioner visits Chad

The High Commissioner arrived in the Chad capital of N'Djamena last night on the first leg of his five-day mission to Chad and Sudan to see UNHCR's operations to protect and assist hundreds of thousands of refugees and people displaced by the crisis in the Darfur region.

This morning, Friday, Mr Lubbers is having a series of meetings with the President of Chad, the Minister of the Interior, government officials, UNHCR staff and partners in the capital. He will then be flying up to Abéché in eastern Chad, the centre of our refugee operations. Nearly 190,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur region are in eastern Chad, where UNHCR has so far established nine refugee camps to shelter them. Two more camps are currently being prepared to receive refugees still at the border who now wish to move to a camp and to decongest existing camps. On Saturday, Mr Lubbers is scheduled to visit a northern camp near the town of Iriba. On Sunday he is slated to travel to El Geneina in Western Darfur where he will visit displaced persons camps and meet with local officials, UNHCR staff and partners. UNHCR does not run camps in Darfur but focuses on border and movement monitoring and conducting field visits to remote areas of Western Darfur. The roving teams look out for undetected and unsupported displaced persons including those who might cross over into Chad.