WFP says plight of Darfur refugees getting worse

The plight of more than 110,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad from Sudan's trouble Darfur province is set to deteriorate rapidly, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday. WFP spokesman Ramin Rafirasme said in a statement from the Chadian capital N'Djamena that 40 percent of the refugees from fighting in Sudan's western Darfur province,were children under five. About 75 percent of the adult refugees were women, he added. At present, most of the refugees are living in makeshift shelters of branches and grass. Their food stocks are exhausted and many are suffering from diarrhoea and respiratory infections - made worse by huge swings in temperature between the day and night. "The humanitarian situation in the border area has quickly become very serious and as the need for assistance grows, relief stocks are dwindling," Rafirasme said. "We need fast cash contributions to buy food locally and within the region." "All the ingredients are in place for a rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation," the WFP spokesman warned, noting that the condition of refugees around the border town of Tine was becoming "especially precarious." "It is increasingly difficult for them to find wood, shelter materials and water due to the desert environment," Rafirasme said. "Although the host population has assisted where possible, they are mainly subsistence farmers living from hand to mouth who cannot cope with additional demands." He said WFP was renewing its appeal to international donors for US$11 million to urgently buy 14,000 tonnes of food and transport it to eastern Chad by May, before the rainy season sets in and makes roads in the area impassible. So far, Rafirasme said, the appeal, launched in December, had received only one firm response. Switzerland had agreed to donate US$800,000. The UN refugee agency UNHCR opened its first formal camp for between 9,000 and 12,000 Sudanese refugees at Farchana, a village 55 km west of the border town of Adre, on 15 January. However, continued fighting between Sudanese government forces and two rebel movements seeking autonomy for Darfur keeps pushing more people over the border. UNHCR said about 18,000 arrived last week after Sudanese government forces, backed by Arab tribal militiamen on horseback, raided and burned 10 villages. The United Nations estimates that about 600,000 people have been internally displaced by the fighting within Darfur. Most are beyond the reach of aid workers, whose activities in the province have been restricted by the Sudanese government.