More than 30,000 people flee to Chad to escape violence in Cameroon: UN | Conflict Issues

More than 20 people have been killed as farmers, fishermen and herdsmen fight for water, the UN refugee agency says.

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

Violence erupted in the border village of Ouloumsa on Sunday in a dispute between pastors, fishermen and farmers over water shortages, the UNHCR said Friday from Geneva.

It then spread to neighboring villages, 10 which were burned.

The conflict has displaced thousands of people across the country, “forcing more than 30,000 people to flee to neighboring Chad,” the UNHCR said.

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

Violence is raging in Logone-Chari in the Far North region of Cameroon – the national language of western Nigeria and eastern Chad.

The UN figures for asylum seekers, as well as the number of deaths, are much higher than the figures released Wednesday by other sources.

The Chadian Red Cross reports that at least 3,000 people have fled, although the number is expected to rise, while Cameroonian officials say at least four have died.

About 80 percent of newcomers are women, mostly pregnant women and children, the UNHCR said.

They have found refuge in the Chadian capital N’Djamena and in the villages along the Logone River in Chad.

UNHCR says at least 10,000 have fled to N’Djamena from Kousseri, a town of 200,000 people whose cattle market was destroyed during the war.

Chadian Prime Minister Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Wednesday wrote the word “difficult” and called on international organizations to help those coming.

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

As has recently happened, fighting has begun over control and access to water, Cameroonian officials say.

Racial violence is less common in Cameroon compared to Chad and Nigeria, where fighting between nomadic pastoralists and nomadic farmers is virtually nonexistent.

Officials in Cameroon say two of the warring factions are Musgum and Indian Choa fishermen.