About 16,000 Chadians were refugees at the end of 1998, including some 7,000 in Central African Republic, nearly 5,000 in Sudan, some 3,000 in Cameroon, and 1,000 in other countries.

Tens of thousands of Chadians reportedly lived in refugee-like conditions in Cameroon.

Some 10,000 refugees from Sudan were in Chad at year's end, plus several hundred refugees from other countries.

Chadian Refugees

A series of armed insurrections in Chad during the past 30 years produced waves of population displacement. Ethnic divisions, religious differences, and regional tensions between the country's northern and southern populations have fed continual rounds of violence. President Idris Deby and his northern ethnic group have dominated Chad's national government throughout the decade.

A major peace agreement in 1994 persuaded more than 10,000 Chadian refugees to return home during 1994-96. Violence caused small numbers of people to flee the country in 1997, but some 3,500 people also repatriated that year.

In early 1998, government troops and insurgents in southern Chad killed more than 100 people in a series of massacres by both sides. More than 3,000 Chadians fled to Central Africa Republic. A peace agreement in May ended most violence in the south and created conditions for the potential repatriation of many Chadian refugees remaining outside the country.

Refugees from Sudan

Some 10,000 or more Sudanese fled to a remote spot in eastern Chad in May to escape ethnic violence in their region of western Sudan. UNHCR provided limited food aid, seeds, and other assistance to about 8,000 of the new arrivals.

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