Chechnya: cross-border movements continue

A seven-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 20-tonnes of food arrived in Ingushetia's capital, Nazran, early today after an overnight journey from Stavropol. It was UNHCR's eighth convoy to the region.

A separate truck with UNICEF medical supplies arrived in Mozdok in North Ossetia.

UNHCR has purchased winterized tents and we are also buying other winter items such as stoves to bring to Ingushetia, where more than 20,000 people live in makeshift accommodation (unheated railway cars and tents) in increasingly harsh weather conditions. Night temperatures are now dropping to minus 12 degrees Celsius. We hope the next convoy, scheduled for next week, will bring almost exclusively winterization material.

A steady stream of people continued across the Chechen-Ingush border Thursday, with nearly 3,000 people leaving Chechnya for Ingushetia and some 1,200 crossing in the other direction. The line of vehicles backed up on the Chechen side of the border is believed to be about 2.5 km long.

Ingushetia now hosts well over 200,000 people from Chechnya, according to local authorities.