UNHCR stress that they have no plans to repatriate any refugees in the short term

The above post that features a report from IRIN JUan 13 points out that Tine in Chad is the border settlement where the NMRD signed a deal that was supposed to lead to refugees returning voluntarily to Darfur.

Also, the report explains that Ahmad Allami, an adviser of Chadian President Idriss Deby who has acted as a mediator in several rounds of peace talks with all three rebel movements in Darfur, said the NMRD were a force to be taken seriously. He estimated that the movement had about 1,000 fighters on the ground. "Contrary to what has been said, the NMRD do represent something in Darfur as they managed to prompt a number of Sudanese refugees to return to Sudan," Allami told IRIN.

A UNHCR official in eastern Chad said some refugees had been making brief trips across the border to benefit from money and assistance packages offered by the Sudanese authorities to returning refugees. But once they had grabbed their cash and food parcels they hurried back into Chad, he added.

"All refugees questioned by the UN say they do not want to go back," he told IRIN. He stressed that UNHCR had no plans to repatriate any of them in the short term.

Note: The report states nearly a third of Darfur's six million inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes, mainly as a result of raids on black African villages by Arab nomads grouped in the pro-government Janjawid militia movement; and the UN estimates that 1.65 million are internally displaced and a further 200,000 have fled to Chad.



The Sudanese refugees in Kourbileke, eastern Chad 4 Feb 2004 - Chad-Sudan: Darfur's invisible refugees living rough in eastern Chad - IRIN.