Chadians seeking refuge in Darfur

The U.N. refugee chief on Wednesday inspected a camp housing Chadians who fled into Darfur to escape the spillover of the region's violence into their homeland.

Rebels have been battling the Sudanese army and the pro-government janjaweed militiamen in Darfur for the past four years, killing some 200,000 people and turning this region of western Sudan into the world's largest humanitarian disaster.

The bloodshed is now fueling increasing violence along the border with Chad involving a complex mix of armed groups who have driven refugees in both directions. Janjaweed militiamen regularly raid neighboring Chad to attack civilians, while Chadian soldiers launch assaults into Darfur to attack Sudanese-backed Chadian rebels.

Some 2.5 million Darfurians have been driven from their homes, most taking refuge in camps within Sudan. But more than 240,000 of them have fled into Chad, where they are joined in their camps by Chadians escaping the violence on their side of the border.

The U.N. refugee agency says some 25,000 Chadians have also fled across the border into Darfur.

The 600-mile border between Sudan and Chad _ drawn by colonial powers France and Britain _ "doesn't exist for these people," said U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres, whose agency coordinates efforts for all the refugees in Chad and most of those in western Darfur.

"Obviously for us the political border is still there," Guterres told The Associated Press after visiting the Umm Shalaya camp, home to some 4,900 Chadians. "But it creates a lot of logistical difficulties in handling regional situations."

Chadians said conditions at the camp are better than they were in their homeland, although they are still regularly harassed by the Arab janjaweed militia.

"Life is much better here than in Chad," said Adeh Modoina, who has lived at Umm Shalaya since it opened a year ago 40 miles inside Sudan. "But it still difficult. The same janjaweed that created problems for us in Chad are creating some here."

The U.N. refugee agency says Umm Shalaya is relatively safe by Darfur standards, and Sudanese authorities say they are trying to accommodate the foreigners.

"It's difficult, but from a humanitarian point of view, it's impossible for us not to share what meager resources we have, with the help of the international community," said Mohamed Alaghbash, who heads Sudan's Commission for Refugees.

Compared to Darfurians in refugee camps, he said, "the Chadian refugees enjoy much safer conditions."

Next to the Chadian camp lies another camp twice as big that is filled with Darfurian refugees. Residents in the nearby village say water and land are growing scarce.

Because of the 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force's lack of success in protecting refugees in Darfur, "the communities have lost confidence in the AU in general," said Senior Supervisor Evens Kapassa, who heads AU police operations in West Darfur.

Khartoum has recently agreed to allow 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers enter the region to reinforce the outnumbered AU force following months of stalling.