More than 30,000 people flee Chad to escape Cameroonian violence: UN | Conflict News

More than 20 people have been killed as farmers, fishermen and ranchers fight for access to water resources, according to the UN refugee agency.

More than 30,000 people in northern Cameroon have fled Chad after violence that killed at least 22 people over the weekend, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Violence erupted in the border town of Ouloumsa in a clash between shepherds, fishermen and farmers on Sunday as water resources were depleted, the UNHCR said in a statement issued by Geneva on Friday.

It then spread to nearby villages, 10 of which were burned.

The clashes have displaced thousands across the country, “forcing more than 30,000 people to flee to nearby Chad,” the UNHCR said.

“At least 22 people have been killed and 30 seriously injured in several days of fighting.”

Violence is taking place in the Logone-Chari region of Cameroon’s Far North region, in western Nigeria and in eastern Chad.

The number of people seeking refuge and deaths at the UN figures is much higher than the figures provided by other sources on Wednesday.

The Chadian Red Cross said there were at least 3,000 refugees, although the number is likely to increase, while Cameroonian authorities say at least four were killed.

Nearly 80 percent of new arrivals are women, many of whom are pregnant, and children, UNHCR said.

They found refuge in the capital N’Djamena in Chad and in the villages along the Chad on the banks of the Logone River.

UNHCR says at least 10,000 people have fled N’Djamen from Kousseri, a town of 200,000 people who destroyed the cattle market in the fighting.

Chadian military government chief Mahamat Idriss Deby Itby said in a statement on Wednesday that the situation was “worrying” and called on international donors to help those who arrived.

Clashes between shepherds and fishermen in August killed 45 people and killed at least 10,000 people in Chad.

As in the last incident, fighting broke out over water management and access, according to Cameroonian authorities.

Violent conflict between ethnic groups is relatively rare compared to Chad in Cameroon and Nigeria, where there are frequent clashes over resources between semi-nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers.

Cameroonian authorities say two of the parties to the conflict are fishermen from the Musgum community and Arab Choa farmers.