KOUSSERI, Cameroon - The old school campus is dilapidated. There is little food, water from only a single tap, no toilets. Families sleep in the open or under tents made of scavenged tree branches and lengths of cloth used as skirts during the day.
Thousands of refugees arrived here after fleeing Chad's capital, N'Djamena, when rebels advanced into the city. They found safety, but also squalor.
Home is just across the river, but they fear that going back would be just as bad, with markets burned, stores looted, and reports that the rebels repelled by government forces Sunday may be regrouping east of the capital.
"If we go back, we're between the anvil and the hammer," said Ngarmbatinan Mbailemdana, a 23-year-old security guard who fled to Kousseri with his wife and two children from just across the Chari River. "The country needs real peace before we go home."
The UN estimated that at least 30,000 people have fled oil-rich Chad for Cameroon since fighting broke out over the weekend in N'Djamena, a city of about 1 million. International relief efforts have not yet been mounted.
Rebels who accuse President Idriss Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue attacked Chad's capital Feb. 1 in pickup trucks mounted with guns. The uprising appears to be a power struggle within the elite that has long controlled Chad.
The rebels had advanced in a matter of days from their eastern bases near the Sudan border, but retreated after bloody weekend battles. Refugees fear fighting will erupt again.
Mbailemdana said yesterday he ventured back into N'Djamena two days ago and found his house burned and saw bodies on streets. Other Chadians said they were going home during the day to check conditions, then returning to Cameroon to sleep.
Food in Kousseri is available only to those refugees who can afford it, and prices at local markets were rising because of refugee demand. A loaf of bread, about 4 cents, has quintupled in price, residents said.
"The situation in Kousseri is really quite serious," Jennifer Nazaire, the representative for Catholic Relief Services in Cameroon, said Wednesday. "Chadians are pouring out of N'Djamena, and there's little set up to receive them at the moment. The Catholic Church in Kousseri, the local government, United Nations, and aid agencies are all scrambling to work out temporary and longer-term measures to host people."
