Growing Violence In Eastern Chad Alarms UN Refugee Agency
New York, May 16 2008 7:00PM
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is voicing deep concern about the escalating violence inside
eastern Chad, where two gendarmes guarding a refugee camp were shot dead earlier this week and an increasing number of
vehicles have been hijacked by bandits.
UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told journalists today in Geneva that the agency is also alarmed that last weekend’s attack by Darfur rebels on the
outskirts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, could further destabilize the already fragile security situation in the
region.
Eastern Chad is home to about 250,000 refugees from neighbouring Darfur, with the majority living in 12 formal camps, as
well as 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) because of the ongoing troubles within Chad.
Ms. Pagonis said that two gendarmes providing security for the Touloum camp were shot and killed by three armed men on
Wednesday, while another two gendarmes were severely injured. The attackers, local Chadians, have since been arrested.
A day earlier, also near Touloum, three gunmen hijacked a vehicle belonging to an aid partner of UNHCR and then drove to
Am Nabak refugee camp, where they hijacked a vehicle belonging to a local non-governmental organization (NGO). After
gendarmes gave chase, the hijackers abandoned the vehicles and escaped.
The hijacking of vehicles, particularly involving NGOs and aid agencies, and other security incidents – such as armed
robberies of NGO compounds – have become increasingly common in eastern Chad, and earlier this month the country
director of Save the Children was killed by bandits.
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