Refugees International launched its second mission to Chad in two months to monitor the condition of the refugees crossing the border to escape fighting in the Darfur region in western Sudan.  An estimated 110,000 refugees have fled into Chad in recent months.  Another one million people have been displaced from their homes within Darfur; many have left their farms to find protection in cities.  Refugees fleeing into Chad report widespread attacks against civilians by Sudanese government forces and an affiliated militia group called the Janjaweed.  

United Nations officials charge government-backed forces with burning villages, raping and pillaging.  UN officials have called the war the gravest humanitarian and human rights crisis in the world today, accusing the government and the Janjaweed with ethnic cleansing.  The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recently reported “shortfalls of shelter, clean water, food and health-care supplies” in Darfur.

Sudan’s government in Khartoum has limited access to Darfur, which has restricted the delivery of humanitarian aid and blocked press coverage and contemporaneous reporting of alleged human rights abuses for the area.  Under the terms of a recently negotiated cease fire, access may improve, although there are reports of cease fire violations.

RI advocate Fidele Lumeya and consultant Pierre Habshi will interview refugees in Chad to get a clearer account of conditions in Darfur.  Approximately 80% of the refugees in Chad are women and children; this unusually high proportion suggests that men are being killed in Darfur or that they are staying behind to fight.    

They will pay particular attention to security in refugee camps.  There are reports that the Janjaweed militia is following refugees across the boarder and attaching them in Chad at night.  They will also monitor humanitarian conditions in Chad and, as much as possible, in Darfur.  

In February and March,  Fidele Lumeya and other RI advocates surveyed displacement in Sudan and Chad.