Chad: No big new influx of Darfur refugees yet, despite fresh fighting

Despite fears of a major new influx of refugees fleeing civil war in Sudan's Darfur region, only a trickle of people entered the string of refugee camps located in the arid wastes of eastern Chad in the last weeks of December. Despite early warnings by UN officials that Chad's refugee population of 200,000 could rise by as much as a third, with 100,000 new entrants seeking shelter in the coming weeks, aid officials said that to date there were relatively few newcomers to the 11 camps. The situation in terms of housing, food and water therefore remained stable.