Gunmen block Darfur refugees at Chad Border - UN

February 15, 2008 (N’DJAMENA) — Unknown armed men prevented humanitarian workers from moving traumatized, new arrivals from Darfur away from Chad’s volatile border with Sudan, the U.N. refugee agency reported Friday.

On Tuesday, gunmen blocked a group of about 1,000 refugees from boarding trucks. They are among some 8,000 refugees who have fled across the border since Sudan bombed three border towns last week.

It was unclear if the move was connected to Chad’s threat on Monday to expel Sudanese refugees if the international community failed to move them out of the Central African nation. Analysts had seen the threat as a ploy to encourage a speedy deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force being sent to protect more than half a million refugees in a volatile triangle where the borders of Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic meet.

"The newly arrived refugees are exhausted. Women report being raped. Children have been separated from their families," said a statement from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.

Spokeswoman Helene Caux said the agency had trucks ready to move the refugees to the relative safety of a camp. But they were awaiting permission from Chad’s government, she said.

Caux said it was impossible to say who the gunmen were. Several armed groups operate along Chad’s border with Sudan.

Chadian President Idriss Deby declared a nationwide state of emergency on Thursday, with a midnight to dawn curfew. He also banned most meeting and set limits on what the media can publish, measures he said were needed to restore order after the rebel attacks.

The rebels attacked the capital, N’Djamena, on Feb. 2-3, fighting to oust Deby, whom they accuse of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue. After a weekend of fighting in which clashes reached the gate of the presidential palace, Chad’s army repelled the rebels from N’Djamena and pursued them eastward toward the Sudanese border.

Deby said the emergency measures would be in place for 15 days, starting Friday, as allowed in Chad’s constitution. After 15 days, Chad’s national assembly can decide whether to allow an extension.

His declaration also gives extra powers to regional governors to control the movement of people and vehicles.

(ST)