Darfur refugees in eastern Chad refuse relocation

About 22,000 Darfuri refugees in the Ab Gadam camp in south-eastern Chad have refused to be relocated to the area of Kursi in Chad. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Ahmed Mohamed Ishag, monitor for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Goz Beida, eastern Chad, reported that the agency, at the request of the Chadian government, had started on 8 February resettling Ab Gadam camp residents to Kursi, located about 120km from the Sudanese border. “It was decided to move the refugees, who all fled from Um Dukhun locality in Central Darfur, to a safer place, as the Ab Gadam camp lies very close to the Sudan-Central African Republic border. UNHCR so far has resettled about 800 refugees in houses near Kursi town. Their children have been enrolled in the schools there. However, most of the camp population, the majority being herders, rejected to be relocated without a reason.” In 2007 the Ab Gadam refugee camp was established to offer more than 10,000 Darfuri refugees who were living at the volatile border area at Tissi, a safer place to live in. Ishag also mentioned that there are about 9,000 Darfuri refugees living at the Sudanese-Chadian border who have not been registered by the UNHCR so far. File photo