more than 100,000 new refugees have fled to Chad, UN calls for help

The finding is very worrying. The number of Sudanese who fled to neighboring Chad the conflict that has bloodied their country for a month and a half has exceeded 100,000 people, alarmed, Thursday, June 1, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), which calls for emergency financial support.

Refugees have been pouring in since April 15 and the conflict sparked between two rival generals who are vying for power in Khartoum. “It is estimated that up to 200,000 people” more could be forced to “flee to Chad within the next three months”, warns Laura Lo Castro, UNHCR representative in Chad, in a press release. The majority of these refugees are “originally from Darfur”region of western Sudan bordering Chad “deeply affected by violence and plagued by growing instability”continues the UN official.

An “urgent need for funding”

“With the rainy season arriving in the next few weeks, we need massive logistics to move refugees from border areas to ensure their safety and protection”adds the UNHCR, which invokes a “urgent need for funding” and invite “the international community” to provide him with the means to “continue to intensify (its) interventions and save lives”.

“UNHCR needs $214.1 million to provide protection and life-saving assistance” to all refugees or displaced persons in Chad, including “72.4 million for the emergency response to the crisis of refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan”concludes the text, adding that these needs are only funded “currently only up to 16%”.