CAR FEARS SPILLOVER FROM DARFUR !

By Karen Allen BBC News, Sam Ouanja camp, Central African Republic.

Dalil's wife gave birth to twins soon after arriving in the refugee camp. When Sudanese Antinov planes came and attacked the town of Darffak, in south Darfur, Dalil Saboun Bruma did not think his wife would make it across the border. She was heavily pregnant with twins but, mercifully, she did not go into labour until she reached Sam Ouanja camp in the Central African Republic. This is now home for Dalil and his family, along with nearly 3,000 other Darfuri refugees from Darffak and surrounding areas.

Many who opted to head for the border - just under half the population of the town - did not survive the journey on foot. Even now, in the safety of the camp, men, women and children continue to die every day. It took Dalil 15 days to arrive in Sam Ouanja, hiding in the dense forests that separate Darfur from this former French colony.

"We had no time to prepare when we ran away... we left everything behind - the house, my businesses, everything," he said. "We didn't even have mosquito nets when we arrived here." These are the first refugees from Darfur to arrive in the Central African Republic. Up until now, most of the refugees have descended on Chad - at least 200,000 of them to date.
But trailing behind the refugees in the Central African Republic are rebels which the Sudanese government has been hunting down as part of a conflict that has lasted more than four years.

The Janjaweed are accused of "ethnic cleansing".

It is not clear how many are lurking along the border, but it is enough to cause nervousness among senior government officials in the town of Sam Ouanja. They fear that this country, fractured by its own internal rebellion, is being dragged into the Darfur conflict because of an accident of geography. Toby Lanzer, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator based in Central African Republic, said this remote country had seen a "disturbing change" in the past few months.
Back in April, in the town of Birao, north of where the refugees have sought sanctuary, there was a major security incident which has echoes of the type seen in Darfur. "People who looked like Janjaweed were sighted and apparently slaughtered over 116 civilian villagers in the town of Birao," he says. "We had another incident when people from a humanitarian organisation were attacked by men on camels and on horsebacks - they were fortunate not to be killed." The deaths are hard to verify in this remote and desolate country.

But what is clear is that among the refugees there are former Darfuri rebels who have not ruled out the possibility of taking up arms again and mounting attacks from a foreign land. It has already happened in neighbouring Chad, where the government has been accused of giving sanctuary to rebel groups, but not yet in the Central African Republic.

Adam Yahiye Adam claims to be an ex-fighter from one of more than 15 rebel groups operating in Darfur. He handed in his weapons in exchange for food when he reached the border of the Central African Republic in May, but he says there are many rebels holding back some 50 miles (80km) away, biding their time. The prospect of a regional conflict involving Darfur looks terrifying... this is fertile territory for guerrilla warfare

Country profile: Central African Republic
Janjaweed roam free

I ask him if he would he go back and this young man in his late 20s, with sharp eyes and a warm smile, is unequivocal - he would. "Yes, I would be willing to go back and fight... If there is still no agreement between the government and rebel groups I would return to Darfur and fight."

Senior figures from the FACA - the national army of the Central African Republic - are already twitchy at the thought of foreign rebels on their territory. In the past few months, a deal has been struck by two of Central African Republic's own rebel groups, and the prospect of a regional conflict involving Darfur looks terrifying. Not least because this is fertile territory for guerrilla warfare. Central African Republic is about the size of France, has virtually no roads and a government that has little control beyond the capital.

Thousands of miles away from the isolated camp in Sam Ouanja where aid agencies are trying to distribute food, cooking pots and water, diplomats are trying to come up with a security plan to protect Central African Republic and its neighbour, Chad, from the spillover effects from Darfur.
Pressure has been mounting for a multi-national peacekeeping force made up of civilian police backed up by troops. The French military may already be present in the north-east, as part of a long-term defence pact with its former colony and there is now a push for the Central African Republic to get a fully-fledged UN force, to try and protect both its people and its porous borders.

BBC NEWS REPORT.