12,000 Flee Darfur After Airstrikes

Up to 12,000 refugees fled Sudan's Darfur region to neighboring Chad over the weekend following air strikes by the Sudanese military and thousands more may be coming, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The agency was bringing emergency assistance to the Chad border where the Darfur refugees were giving detailed descriptions of air attacks Friday on three West Darfur towns. The refugees are destitute and terrified and told of their villages being looted and burned and encircled by militia. Most of the new refugees in Chad are men and they told the U.N. that thousands of women and children are on their way. The U.N. says the worsening situation in Darfur has been exacerbated by a recent rebel attack on the capital of neighboring Chad. Chad has accused Sudan's President Omar-al-Bashir of backing those rebels in a bid to prevent deployment of a European peacekeeping force in the Chad-Sudan border region where some 400,000 refugees are living.