Sixty per cent of the 200,000 refugees from Darfur now living in just 12 camps in Chad are children. Sudanese rebels are forcing refugees who have sought shelter across the border in Chad to join them and take up arms against the government. Children are among those being compelled. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven from their homes in four years of violence in the Darfur region since ethnic African rebels took up arms against militia supported by the Arab-dominated central government. The conflict in Darfur since 2003 has spilled refugees and violence over the border into eastern Chad, where aid workers are struggling with widespread insecurity as they help almost 400,000 refugees living in sprawling camps.
