Fears for Chad's fleeing refugees

Rebel attacks have forced refugees to flee across borders in the region

More than 10,000 Chadians have fled to Sudan's war-torn Darfur region in the last month, the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says.

They have been escaping attacks reported to have been carried out by men on horseback and camels.

Chad hosts some 200,000 Sudanese who fled there from the fighting in Darfur.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says vast areas of Chad, Darfur and nearby Central African Republic are almost devoid of any real authority.

He says law and order appears to have collapsed in southern Chad after rebels tried to oust the president in April.

The refugees having been arriving in the town of Um Dukhum, which is close to Sudan's border with Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Rebel attacks have forced refugees to flee across all of these countries' borders.

"The new arrivals tell us that many people ran deeper into Chad. What's more, the rainy season is upon us... [making] it harder to provide humanitarian assistance. We need to help these people now," says MSF's Chris Lockyear in Um Dukhun.

Wounds

"The first attack was the worst, there were over 100 of them. They took everything and killed anyone who was in the way," a 25-year-old Chadian woman told MSF.

Rampaging in eastern Chad Fleeing CAR violence

"We came to Um Dukhun as soon as we could get out, because they kept coming back."

MSF says people have been arriving at its clinic in Um Dukhun with wounds from gunshots, axes and swords.

Such attacks have been common in Darfur over the past three years, where pro-government Janjaweed militia have been accused trying to "cleanse" black Africans from large swathes of territory.

Now the Janjaweed are attacking deep into Chad, and making alliances with some groups while fighting against others as the area has a similar ethnic make-up to Darfur.

After April's coup attempt, Chadian police and military were withdrawn from the south, to boost the government's fragile hold on the capital, N'Djamena, leaving it almost devoid of any real authority.