Nearly 2,000 Flee West Darfur Into Chad After Deadly Clashes - UN Refugee Agency

Nearly 2,000 people have fled from Sudan's state of West Darfur into neighboring Chad in the past two weeks following a new series of intercommunal clashes which have left at least 144 people dead, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2021) Nearly 2,000 people have fled from Sudan's state of West Darfur into neighboring Chad in the past two weeks following a new series of intercommunal clashes which have left at least 144 people dead, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release on Tuesday.

"Recent intercommunal clashes in El Geneina, in Sudan's West Darfur State, have forced 1,860 refugees to cross into neighbouring Chad in the past week," the release said. "The refugees, mostly women, children and the elderly, have fled homes in villages near the border, in the aftermath of deadly clashes that started on April 3."

The resurging violence has reportedly left 144 people dead and more than 230 injured and humanitarian agencies are trying to establish the exact number of newly displaced people in West Darfur, the UNHCR said.

"Refugees arriving in Chad speak of houses and properties being destroyed, and of sites hosting displaced people being targeted. Some of the new arrivals had already been displaced by earlier clashes last year and in January this year," the release stated.

UNHCR teams report conditions on the ground being dire with displaced families staying in the open in temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with food and water in short supply. Chad's Ouaddai region, which is receiving the flow of asylum seekers, already hosts 145,000 Darfurian refugees, the UNHCR said.