Fighting in Sudan's West Darfur forced more than 11,000 refugees into neighboring Chad in the past month, most of whom were already living in refugee camps for internally displaced people, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) Fighting in Sudan's West Darfur forced more than 11,000 refugees into neighboring Chad in the past month, most of whom were already living in refugee camps for internally displaced people, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday.
"Four-thousand of them have fled during last week alone and it is estimated that the clashes have displaced some 46,000 inside the country," the release said.
Most of the 11,000 new refugees were already internally displaced, many living in displacement camps when fighting erupted in late December, the release said.
Refugees have found temporary shelter in schools, mosques and other buildings in the town of El Geneina, located about 12 miles beyond Sudan's border with Chad, according to the release.
UNHCR anticipates the number of refugees can reach 30,000 in the coming weeks as tensions persist.
Darfur was the scene of an early 21st century genocide, in which government backed militias waged a campaign of rape and mass slaughter beginning in 2003. An estimated 500,000 people died and nearly 3 million were displaced, according to reports from human rights groups and media.
