The number of people estimated to have died during a brutal attack on villages in south eastern Chad last month, had risen to between 200 and 400, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Tuesday in Geneva. Up to 80 people had also been wounded. More than 9,000 villagers had fled their homes and arrived at a camp for internally displaced people following the raids on the villages of Tiero and Marena on March 31, dpa reported. The UNHCR said this was far more than expected. They joined 9,000 people already at the new Habile camp, who had fled earlier attacks in the region. UNHCR said many of those killed had been buried where they fell, often in common graves, and it was impossible to know the exact number of dead. UNHCR staff had visited the villages Sunday that had been deserted after being surrounded by militias shooting randomly. They described the scenes as "apocalyptic." Corpses lay unburied alongside the rotting remains of livestock, abandoned in the hurry to get away. The region shares a border with Sudan and is vulnerable to attack from forces spilling over from the Darfur conflict.
