Chad looting forces aid staff out

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UN aid agencies say they are to move non-essential staff in Chad to Cameroon after the looting of UN warehouses in the town of Abeche over the weekend.

They say the reduction in staff and the loss of supplies will inevitably have an impact on relief work.

The UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme are caring for more than 200,000 Darfur refugees in 12 camps along Chad's border with Sudan.

They are also helping 90,000 Chadians displaced by the recent fighting.

Huge task

The violence in the eastern town of Abeche has shocked UN aid agencies, especially the looting of their warehouses, which was carried out by the local population.

Despite the enormous needs of the refugees along Chad's border with Sudan, they say the safety of aid workers must remain a top priority.

"Preparations are now under way to re-locate all non-essential staff during the course of the week. The relocation destination is Yaounde in Cameroon," Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme (WFP) said.

"WFP is considering the establishment of an operational base across the border from N'djamena in the Cameroonian town of Kousseri in case the situation should worsen," he said.

For the aid workers left behind, the task is huge, not least because they are now without many vital supplies.

"We estimate about $1.3m of relief items has been nicked and destroyed. The spare parts for our entire vehicle fleet of some 200 vehicles were taken," Jennifer Pagonis of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

"The authorities in Abeche have called on the looters to return stolen items. However, we have only recovered a very small number of items and quite a lot of these items have been severely damaged," she said.

Abeche was the hub for UN aid agencies. Most relief supplies were stored there.

Although the town is now calm, the countryside reportedly remains tense.

The UN does not want to risk having more supplies stolen.

If the security situation deteriorates further, it says, it may have to relocate its supplies to Cameroon as well, making the relief operation even more complicated.