A British Red Cross plane has left for eastern Chad (2 October), taking much-needed relief goods to Sudanese refugees.
The plane carried over 3,000 cooking pots and utensils, 6,000 buckets, nearly 4,000 jerry cans for carrying and storing clean water and electricity generators. The relief goods will be distributed among 20,000 refugees in a new camp in Trejine, Chad. The camp, managed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in partnership with the Chad Red Cross, is 85km from the border with Sudan.
As many as 200,000 people have sought safety from violence in Sudan in neighbouring Chad and continue to need urgent help. Health, hygiene and food are their main concerns as the rainy season continues. Uncertainty about family members they left behind adds to the refugees' ordeal.
Miriam Grove, expert on west and central Africa at the British Red Cross, said: "This aid flight will bring vital relief supplies to people who have nothing. Now, more than ever, refugees in Chad need our help. The rainy season has compounded their plight and rendered many roads impassable. It is critical that we provide shelter, basic healthcare and essential household items, like cooking pots and jerry cans."
The British Red Cross is also helping people across the border in Sudan. Together with the Australian Red Cross, it is providing basic healthcare to 40,000 internally displaced people as well as supporting the host community in the remote town of Geraida, 110 kilometres south of Nyala. Fighting in Darfur has displaced about one-fifth of the region’s population of seven million people.
Further aid flights to Chad carrying mosquito nets and cholera kits are planned in the next two weeks. | 
