Carrying blankets and bed sheets on their heads, thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in Chad's capital N'Djamena crossed a drought-stricken river to get to neighboring Cameroon Sunday, local officials and journalists said.Government forces, under the direction of Chad's President Idriss Deby, continued a bloody battle for power in N'Djamena against the rebels, according to a French military spokesman. Between 2,000 and 3,000 rebel soldiers armed with rifles roamed N'Djamena's streets in pickup trucks, the spokesman said.
| Guess the ceasefire didn't last long, huh? |
On Sunday, the Chadian refugees flooded the Cameroon town of Kousseri, which lies just across the border from N'Djamena, according to Helene Caux, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.
She said authorities in Kousseri have put the number of Chadian refugees in the thousands. That was confirmed by Agnes Teile, a journalist for Cameroon television station Canal 2, who witnessed a steady stream of people -- mostly women and children -- spilling into Kousseri. Some of the refugees were able to cross into Cameroon over a bridge, which was reopened earlier Sunday. Others had to wade through the river which was at low levels due to an ongoing drought.
Aid groups are struggling to reach the injured because of the ongoing fighting, according to the Chadian Red Cross which estimates about 200 have been wounded since Saturday. Many of the injured are civilians caught in the crossfire, according to the aid group Doctors Without Borders -- known internationally by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres. Some of those who fled to Cameroon also sustained injuries and are being treated by Cameroon's military and Red Cross, Teile said.