Hundreds of Cameroonian refugees are reportedly fleeing to Chad as carnage intensifies in parts of the country.
A Cameroonian farmer, Saleh Abderamane, was bleeding from a machete wound to his head when his relatives ferried him across the river border to Chad among thousands of refugees fleeing violence between farmers and herders.
The 34-year-old was attacked during a fight fuelled by water disputes in the far North region that drove 48,000 people to seek refuge in Chad this month, according to Chadian authorities.
“I nearly died far out in the bush but luckily my relatives found me and took me across the river,” said Abderamane at a camp on the outskirts of Chad’s capital N’Djamena.
A bloodstained bandage swathed the entire crown of his head.
“We can’t go back there soon because even if the other communities don’t kill us, we would die of hunger,” he said, recalling the destruction of food stores, markets, and fields.
Refugees, mostly women and children, are still trying to reach Chad, crossing the rivers Chari and Logone on rickety boats.
Exhausted new arrivals to one of the camps were greeted with tears and wails from friends and relatives.
The number of the refugees has risen by 60 per cent in the past week, putting substantial pressure on local communities which were already facing food shortages, said Chad’s Minister of Territorial Administration Mahamat Bechir Chérif.
The refugees are staying in camps along the riverbank outside the capital, lacking proper shelter and sleeping in open air.
Teary-eyed children line up in the midday sun for meals from the local Red Cross.
Chad is already home to close to one million refugees and internally displaced people and its resources to respond to their needs are critically low, the United Nations refugee agency said.
The agency, which is responding to the crisis, said the situation in the far North region remained volatile, although security forces had been sent in an effort to restore calm.
At least, 22 people have been killed since the clashes broke out in early December following disputes between Arab Choa herders and Mousgoum and Massa farmers and fishermen, local authorities said last week.
Similar violence in August killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee to Chad.
(Reuters/NAN).
