U.N. Fears Sudanese Refugee Crisis May Get Much Worse

Continued attacks by Arab militias in Sudan may drive tens of thousands of villagers across the border into Chad, overwhelming refugee camps there, the U.N. said Friday.

Hundreds of refugees have crossed the border in the last several days, an indicator that killings and rapes by militia members have continued. United Nations officials fear that once the swollen river on the border between the nations dries up after the rainy season, residents of entire villages will flee to Chad.

Leaders from a village of 30,000 people in Sudan’s western Darfur region met Wednesday with the country’s U.N. refugee director and said they would have to cross into Chad if they did not receive protection from the militias, which are known as janjaweed.

Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Sudan was “an unlikely prospect” and that the camps were not equipped to handle a sudden influx of so many refugees. Chad already has received more than 180,000 refugees fleeing Darfur.

“We are concerned that such an influx of 30,000 refugees in one single spot along the Chad-Sudan border, if it were to materialize, would put a strain on our ability to care for and feed refugees in our camp there,” Redmond said at a news briefing in Geneva.

The camps in Sudan and Chad are hardly havens. Residents suffer from cholera, hepatitis E, malaria and malnutrition. Food, clean water and medicine are becoming scarce as rains make roads impassable for relief vehicles.

“The refugees say that with supplies dwindling and their animals dead or stolen, the refugee camps have become their only chance for survival,” Redmond said.

The conflict in western Sudan began in February 2003, when rebel groups representing black African farmers and villagers rose up against the Arab-led central government to demand greater economic and political rights. In a country of age-old tribal and territorial rivalries, pro-government Arab militias razed villages, killing and raping the residents. Now Sudan faces what is widely viewed as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.2 million people displaced and about 30,000 killed.

Although a U.N. Security Council resolution threatened Sudan with punishment if it did not quell the militias’ violence by Aug. 30, the government has said it may not be able to rein in the forces. Monitors from the African Union and human rights groups have documented new attacks this month by the government and the janjaweed.

A U.N.-Sudanese team assigned to evaluate the government’s efforts will make an assessment trip next week and report to the Security Council on Sept. 2.

Also next week, the government is expected to provide officials from the world body with a list of the militias it can control and the steps it has taken to round up and prosecute fighters, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Wednesday.

Sudan’s foreign minister sent a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday pledging the government’s willingness to cooperate in disarming the militias, allowing access to aid groups and continuing talks with rebels.

But the letter also criticized the council and said the government needed more time to disarm the janjaweed fighters.

Early next month, the Security Council will decide, based on the joint assessment, whether to punish Sudan. But council diplomats, even from nations that have backed that route, said privately this week that the punitive measures were unlikely because of political disagreement within the world body.

The African Union also is seeking ways to apply pressure on Sudan to restore stability.