The United Nations appealed for emergency funds for Chad to feed thousands of refugees from regional violence as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived on Friday to pave the way for international peacekeepers. Most of the 380,000 civilians sheltering in eastern Chad fled civil war at home in Sudan's Darfur region, but 150,000 of them are local people forced from their homes as ethnic conflict has spilled over the border in a regional spiral of bloodshed.

China's "no-strings-attached" investments in Africa appear to many a welcome alternative to the conditional loans offered by the World Bank and IMF. But what consequences will China's growing involvement on the continent have for Africans? China has become the new lead developer in many African countries, out-funding the international financial institutions and other bilateral donors in some cases.

A joint report by the United Nations refugee agency and its Sudanese Government counterpart has recommended that the estimated 30,000 Chadians who have fled to neighbouring Darfur to escape a worsening security situation in their homeland be classified as refugees. But the report also warned that anyone in that group who is an active or former combatant in the clashes in Chad should not be granted refugee status, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis has said.

Chadian President Idriss Deby said Thursday that he accepts the idea of an interim European Union peacekeeping force in the African nation to protect people affected by violence spilling over from neighboring Darfur. Deby spoke after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been pushing for the force.

The sight that greets visitors to Goz Amir is grimly familiar in eastern Chad. Every single house has been burnt to the ground, giant clay urns used as grain stores are smashed, charred grass marks where homes once stood. It is completely deserted.