Refugees continue to flee from Darfur into Chad

Sudanese refugees are continuing to flee from Darfur in western Sudan into Chad to escape militia attacks, according to the NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). While the numbers remained unclear, pockets of people continued to cross the border every night when they could get across more easily, Sonia Peyrassol, MSF Operational Coordinator for Chad, told IRIN. Border officials appeared to be trying to stop the flow, she said, but it was unclear whether it was on the Sudanese or the Chadian side. About 15,000 people are believed to be camped in and around the town of Birak, up to 6,000 in Tine, and tens of thousands of others along the 400 km border between the two countries. MSF teams in eastern Chad had received reports of militia groups in Darfur raping women and kidnapping them, burning down villages and stealing their cattle, she said. Arab militias regularly attacked civilians and stole their cattle and possessions, the secretary general of the the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), Minni Arkou Minnawi, told IRIN. The SLA accuses the Sudanese government of backing the militias - charges denied by the Sudanese authorities. Most of the refugees who arrive in Chad have no possessions and are sheltering under blankets suspended by twigs in a desert region with extreme temperatures and daily rains, Peyrassol said. Food is scarce and they are forced to drink water and wash in a local river, which they share with animals. The main illnesses are malaria and diarrhoea. The Sudanese government has acknowledged that the militias are a "problem" and said it will act to address them, Tom Vraalsen, the UN's Special Envoy for Sudan, told IRIN this week following a mission to the area. A 45-day ceasefire agreement effective 6 September was signed by the government and the SLA, and talks between both sides are reportedly ongoing in El Fashir, in northern Darfur. An estimated 400,000 people have been displaced in Darfur because of the conflict, which erupted when the SLA took up arms to fight against what it described as discrimination and marginalisation in March.