GENEVA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations has begun an emergency airlift of vital shelter supplies to 30,000 Chadian refugees who have crossed into Cameroon, U.N. agencies said on Friday. The aid agencies will make their first distribution of beans, rice and cooking oil on Saturday to the refugees who have been staying in the Kousseri area of Cameroon since fleeing last weekend's rebel attack on N'Djamena. Many refugees are sleeping rough in unsanitary conditions. An Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, which landed in the northern Cameroon town of Garoua on Friday with 45 tonnes of relief items, will be followed by a second flight over the weekend, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) said. "A UNHCR emergency airlift is now underway to bring aid to the refugees who have fled N'Djamena to Cameroon over recent days," spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing. It was too early to say whether the Chadian refugees would start returning to their homeland, where the situation is calmer, but in the meantime many are going back and forth over the border to check on their property, she said. The UNHCR and U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) will make the food distribution for up to 30,000 people on Saturday. WFP trucks are en route for Cameroon, and the agency is also flying in high-energy biscuits from its regional emergency warehouse in Ghana, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said. The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) -- which put the number of Chadian refugees in Cameroon at 52,000 -- said that humanitarian needs were huge. "Clean water is lacking and sanitary conditions are particularly bad at Kousseri," UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau told reporters. A massive vaccination campaign was starting on Friday, aiming to reach 35,000 Chadian children in the Kousseri area to protect them against polio and measles, she added. The Cameroon Red Cross was trying to identify several dozen unaccompanied Chadian children among the refugees, Taveau said. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Displaced girls play at a showground in Nairobi February 7, 2008. The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday demanded an end to what it described as "ethnically motivated attacks" in Kenya, where ...
