Over the past few years, Darfur refugees at Goz Amer camp in Chad replaced their UNHCR tents with traditional mud and stick shelters which were easily ignited in the blaze which left some 3,000 people homeless on Friday. © UNHCR/H.Caux
UNHCR News Stories
ABECHE, Chad  A fire swept through part of the remote Goz Amer refugee camp in eastern Chad on Friday, leaving some 3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless. UNHCR staff reported that 10 people were slightly injured, and many refugees lost all their food rations and meagre belongings.
"The refugees have already suffered so much tragedy and now face yet another trauma," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in Geneva. "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."
The cause of the midday blaze was believed to be an untended cooking fire which spread rapidly, fanned by high winds.
"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, UNHCR's acting head of office in nearby Koukou-Angarana. "The teamwork was outstanding."
UNHCR staff immediately opened up stockpiles in the area and began delivering blankets and other aid supplies. This effort will continue throughout the weekend, drawing in supplies from around eastern Chad if necessary.
Goz Amer, about 40 kms from the Chadian town of Goz Beida and 70 kms from the Sudanese border, has a population of about 20,500 refugees. It is the southernmost of 12 UNHCR-run camps along a 600-km stretch of the Chad-Sudan border housing more than 240,000 Darfur refugees. The refugee agency also helps some 180,000 internally displaced Chadians in the east. The remoteness of the vast and sometimes insecure area makes it one of UNHCR's most logistically challenging operations anywhere.
UNHCR staff reported many women and children were deeply shocked by the fire. The affected families were being accommodated Friday night at three camp schools. On Saturday morning, tents and more aid supplies, including sleeping mats, blankets and kitchen sets, will be distributed. UNHCR has also asked its partner, the World Food Programme, to deliver an extra monthly food ration to those whose homes were destroyed during the fire.
Many of the refugees constructed traditional stick and mud shelters to replace UNHCR tents they received when they first arrived in 2004. The traditional huts were easily ignited in Friday's blaze. Uwurukundu said bricks should be used in future to avoid such incidents.
UNHCR works with several partners in the region, including government counterpart CNAR, and NGOs INTERSOS, COOPI and OXFAM.
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Story date: 11 April 2008
UNHCR News Stories
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.