UNHCR resettles Chadian refugees in Central Darfur

18 Chadian refugee families have been resettled from camp Mukjar to camp Um Shalaya in Azum locality, Central Darfur, on Wednesday by the UNHCR. The humanitarian organisation has requested the refugees to either return to Chad or they will be resettled in the region. Wardi Bahar, the Um Shalaya camp representative, told Radio Dabanga that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) transported 18 families, consisting of 118 people, of the Chadian refugees from the camp in Mukjar locality to Um Shalaya. They traveled with a bus and three trucks. “They were moved due to the recent incidents in the region”, Bahar noted. “They now live inside kindergartens.” On Wednesday, Bahar told Radio Dabanga that the 8,000 Chadian refugees in Um Shalaya refused to return to Chad, as they fear the lack of security, stability, services and development. Their stay as refugees in Sudan would end in January 2014, the UNHCR and Unamid told the Chadians on 23 December. Bahar complained of the reduction of the food rations they are receiving from the humanitarian organisations. “3.5kg of grains are distributed monthly to the refugees. The food programme has stopped the distribution of sugar and oil.” File photo: Chadian refugees at the Chad-Sudan border load their luggage onto a lorry that will form part of a convoy taking them to the Um Shalaya refugee camp in West Darfur, 2007. (Schuette /UNHCR)Related: Chadian refugees in Darfur afraid to return (25 December 2013) 30% of crops destroyed by livestock in Mukjar, Central Darfur (5 December 2013) Salamat torch Misseriya settlements near Mukjar, Central Darfur (30 October 2013)