The central African nation of Chad has urged the United Nations to move more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees away from the volatile Chad-Sudan border.
Speaking in the capital, N'Djamena Wednesday, Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi said the government considers it essential that the refugee camps be moved to points further west.
On Tuesday, a Chadian government official said some of the refugees were working for Sudan to destabilize Chad.
Chad has repeatedly accused Sudan of backing rebels opposed to Chadian President Idriss Deby. The Sudanese government denies the allegation.
The U.N. refugee agency runs the camps, which house some 218,000 people from Sudan's troubled Darfur region. Moving the refugees would almost certainly require a major, internationally-supported operation.
Chad's demands come after new fighting and violence that flared up in eastern Chad Saturday and Sunday. Rebels briefly occupied the town of Abeche before government troops regained control. Meanwhile, crowds of civilians looted two U.N. warehouses in the town, making off with an estimated 80 percent of the U.N.'s relief supplies for the area.