The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said today that up to 400 people are estimated to have been killed in Chad during cross-border attacks by Sudanese Janjaweed militia some 10 days ago.
The agency said last week that Chadian authorities had reported an initial toll of at least 65 dead in the March 31st attacks on two villages in eastern Chad, Tiero and Marena, where an estimated 8,000 people lived.
But the new estimate followed a visit by a group of UN agencies to the remote area on Sunday, where they found a situation that one UNHCR official described as "apocalyptic".
"Estimates of the number of dead have increased substantially and now range between 200 and 400. . . . Because most of the dead were buried where their bodies were found - often in common graves owing to their numbers - we may never know their exact number," a UNHCR spokesman said.
The UN team found decomposing bodies in the villages, where hundreds of homes had been burned to the ground, and an "overwhelming stench" from rotting carcasses of dead animals.
"There were many indications that people had little or no time to flee, given that many essential household goods, food and domestic animals were left behind," the spokesman said.