U.N. Seeks Funds for Chad Refugees as Ban Arrives

N'DJAMENA - The United Nations appealed for emergency funds for Chad to feed thousands of refugees from regional violence as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived on Friday to pave the way for international peacekeepers.

Most of the 380,000 civilians sheltering in eastern Chad fled civil war at home in Sudan's Darfur region, but 150,000 of them are local people forced from their homes as ethnic conflict has spilled over the border in a regional spiral of bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban touched down in Chad's capital N'Djamena on Friday as part of a regional tour intended to speed up efforts to deploy U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur and a European Union-led force in eastern Chad.

U.N. agencies are caring for refugees in teeming camps, and the World Food Programme (WFP) launched an appeal, to coincide with Ban's visit, for $81 million to feed the needy in 2008.

"Donors need to act now to avoid the risk of any delay in providing food for hundreds of thousands of people who entirely depend on WFP for their daily survival," Felix Bamezon, WFP country director, said in a statement on Thursday.

"As soon as the food arrives here, WFP will be in a real race against the clock to deliver before the rains start in June. That might seem a long way off now, but from June 2008 onwards, roads will become impassable and will be officially closed," he said.

Refugees and violence have poured into eastern Chad since 2003 when rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Khartoum government in 2003, triggering a wave of violence in which mounted "Janjaweed" militia fighters joined government attacks on tribespeople in what the United States has branded genocide.

During a visit to Khartoum on Thursday, Ban met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and announced a new round of peace talks between Bashir's government and the rebels, starting in Libya on Oct. 27.

Previous talks in Nigeria produced a 2006 peace deal between the government and one Darfur rebel group that failed to end bloodshed despite the deployment of 7,000 African Union peacekeepers.

The United Nations now wants to transform that force into a 26,000-strong joint U.N.-AU force, but Ban says there must be a peace to keep.

Across the border in Chad, ethnic fighting and a sporadic local revolt against Chadian President Idriss Deby has increased a sense of insecurity and Ban has proposed a complementary European Union force to protect civilians and aid operations in eastern Chad.

The force, which European officials say could number 1,500-3,000 troops, would also work in Central African Republic to try to block armed groups using the volatile country to cross between Chad and Sudan.