Thousands of Darfur refugees homeless after camp fire: UN
GENEVA (AFP) — A fire swept through a refugee camp in eastern Chad injuring 10 people and leaving some 3,000 people from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region homeless, the United Nations said Saturday.
The blaze, which broke out in the remote Goz Amer camp on Friday was sparked by an untended cooking fire, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.
"Everybody around, refugees and all our partners alike, rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish the fire with whatever they had: clothes, extinguishers and water," said Emmanuel Uwurukundo, a local UNHCR official.
"The teamwork was outstanding."
Goz Amer, located about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the Sudanese border, has a population of about 20,500 refugees.
It is the southernmost of 12 UNHCR-run camps along a 600-kilometre stretch of the Chad-Sudan border housing more than 240,000 refugees from Darfur.
Tensions between Chad and Sudan have mounted recently with Chad accusing Khartoum of massing rebels on the border to prepare for an imminent attack.
The squabbling neighbours signed a latest peace deal on March 13 aimed at ending a five-year conflict.
The accord, signed by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir, included undertakings from both sides not to back rebel groups active either side of the border.
At least 200,000 people have died in Sudan's restive Darfur region and 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in 2003, the UN says. Sudan's government puts the number of deaths at 9,000.
The conflict began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Sudanese regime and Arab militia.
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A fire broke out in a refugee camp in eastern Chad Friday, leaving 3,000 people homeless and injuring 10, according to the United Nations (UN) refugee agency United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Refugees have been living in the camp as a result of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.

A Darfur refugee camp in Chad in 2005. 
The fire started in the Goz Amer camp triggered by a cooking fire that had gone unwatched. The fire moved quickly through the camp due to high winds. Many of the refugees lost all of their belongings and food rations in the blaze. After receiving tents from the UNHCR in 2004, many of the refugees built traditional dwellings out of sticks and mud, and these shelters burned rapidly in the fire.

In a UNHCR press release, Emmanuel Uwurukundo, acting UNHCR head in Koukou-Angarana said: "Everybody around, refugees and all our partners alike, rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish the fire with whatever they had: clothes, extinguishers and water. The teamwork was outstanding."


In Geneva the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres commented on the situation: "The refugees have already suffered so much tragedy and now face yet another trauma. I am deeply relieved that there was no loss of life in this devastating fire. We will do everything we can to help and to get shelter and food supplies to them as quickly as possible."

Families affected by the fire were housed at three area schools, and the UNHCR announced on Friday that it planned to deliver aid supplies including sleeping mats, blankets and kitchen sets. The World Food Programme was also asked by the UNHCR for an extra monthly food ration to be delivered to the families whose homes were destroyed in the blaze.

The Goz Amer camp houses about 20,500 refugees, and is located approximately 70 kilometers from the Sudanese border. Goz Amer is one of 12 UNHCR-run camps along the Chad-Sudan which all told contain over 240,000 refugees from Darfur.

Chad and Sudan signed a peace agreement on March 13 in an attempt to end a five-year conflict, and the leaders of both countries agreed not to back rebel groups that are active near their borders.

Approximately 2.2 million people from the Darfur region have left their homes since the beginning of the violence in 2003. The UN puts the number of deaths due to the Darfur conflict at over 200,000, and the Sudanese government has said that only 9,000 have died.