Neighbours will struggle to cope with refugees, say aid agencies

The UN is in a race against time to get food to Sudanese refugees crossing the border into Chad before the rainy season, as neighbouring countries struggle to cope with the numbers of people fleeing the civil war

- Lizzy Davies

More than 110,000 people are estimated to have crossed into other countries as patchy ceasefires fail to stop deadly clashes between Sudanese army troops and a paramilitary rival that have killed hundreds and forced more than 330,000 from their homes.

But aid workers warn there are serious questions, in a region suffering acutely from hunger and already hosting sizeable refugee populations with vastly decreased funds, over what awaits new arrivals.

In Chad, the imminent rainy season threatened to cut off remote border regions and food stocks needed to be "pre-positioned" in strategic locations, such as the Farchana refugee camp, said Pierre Honnorat, Chad spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP). "The rains are coming... and in six to eight weeks the roads will be hardly passable," he said.

It is also only weeks until the start of the lean season between harvests, which was already expected to leave an estimated 1.9 million people severely food insecure.