GENEVA - Hundreds of women and children fled by foot and on donkeys from Darfur to the neighboring Central African Republic after their town was attacked by planes and helicopters, the UN refugee agency said Friday.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was rushing aid to the 1,500 refugees who made the grueling 125-mile journey over 10 days, said spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis.
The refugees told UN officials their town of Dafak, in southern Darfur, was attacked repeatedly by janjaweed militia from May 12 to May 18 and that their homes had been bombarded by airstrikes, Pagonis said.
"There were more air attacks even as they were fleeing," the refugees told UNHCR monitors, according to Pagonis. "Refugees said they will not return to Darfur before basic safety ... can be guaranteed. Many of them expressed fear of further attacks."
The UN and African Union peacekeepers regularly report the Sudanese air force bombs Darfur villagers and rebel positions, despite a UN resolution forbidding such attacks. Aid and humanitarian workers, as well as Darfur survivors, have said the air attacks are often in preparation for raids by pro-government janjaweed militiamen that follow shortly after the bombings.
A Sudanese military official contacted by The Associated Press in Khartoum declined comment on the attacks reported in Dafak.
More than 200,000 people in Darfur have been killed and 2.5 million chased from their homes since fighting broke out in 2003 between ethnic African rebels and the janjaweed militia. A beleaguered, 7,000-member African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting and neither has a peace agreement signed a year ago year between the government and one rebel group.
Pagonis said the UN refugee agency was sending in 600 rolls of plastic sheeting -- enough to provide temporary shelter for 3,000 people -- while other UN agencies arrange for food, water and sanitation supplies.
"More refugees are arriving daily" in Central African Republic, Pagonis said. The impoverished country hosts 10,000 refugees in total, mostly from Sudan, Congo and Chad. There are also more than 200,000 citizens of the country uprooted within its borders.
Pagonis said there were concerns about the city of Sam-Ouandjia where the refugees have fled. The city, in the northeastern corner of the country, has been attacked twice by rebels in the last four months. The rebels are believed to have crossed from bases in Darfur, whose conflict has increased instability across the region where Sudan, Central African Republic and Chad meet.
Pagonis rejected reports that rebels were entering the Central African Republic mixed with the newly arrived women and children from Darfur. "The assessment team found no evidence of armed elements among the refugees," she told reporters in Geneva, where UNHCR has its headquarters.
Pope Benedict XVI, meanwhile, met with Sudan's new ambassador to the Vatican, Ahmed Hamid Elfaki Hamid, on Friday and appealed for stepped-up efforts to end the "murderous conflict" in Darfur.
In the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, some 60 demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy after Friday prayers to protest new economic sanctions announced by President Bush to pressure Sudan's government to halt the bloodshed in Darfur. The protest lasted about an hour and there were no incidents, police said.
