Réfugiés : destruction du camp de Ras Jdir – 27 mai 2011

Tunisia camp destroyed in fatal clashes, say UN

bbc

27 May 2011

A camp in Tunisia for people fleeing the conflict in Libya has been nearly completely destroyed in clashes also involving local residents, the UN says.

At least two people died and now most of the 4,000 mainly African camp residents are staying out in the open.

« It’s the worst conditions; if there is a hell, I think it’s this, » an Eritrean doctor at the camp told the BBC.

The violence began after protesting refugees demanding resettlement blocked a road, angering locals.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, some of the refugees – who are mainly from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan – wanted to be moved after a fire on Sunday night in the Eritrean section of the camp killed four people.

Two-thirds of the camp has been either looted or burned”

The next day, a large group of camp residents demanding immediate resettlement surrounded the UNHCR’s offices, threatened staff and then blocked a main road to the Ras Ajdir border point, an important trade route.

Aid workers were forced to withdraw, after which rival groups within Choucha camp began fighting each other, the UN said.

The situation deteriorated when 500 local Tunisians descended on the camp and many of the residents fled to the surrounding desert in the chaos. Read more…