Last month, Adam Sabun had to decide whether to save his own life or that of his younger brother Abdel.

The two, whose names have been changed to protect their identity, were among thousands of Sudanese who have been abducted recently from refugee camps in eastern Chad - near the border of the now-infamous Darfur region of western Sudan - and forced to fight by various Chadian and Sudanese rebel groups operating in the area. This new and worrisome development further complicates one of the world's most complex humanitarian crises.

"I'd had no food for four days," says Mr. Sabun. "I wanted to escape while I could still walk." Other kidnapped refugees had told him that his brother had also been taken. As Sabun searched for his brother, he got weaker and weaker. Finally he slipped the guards and walked seven hours through the desert back to his camp, hoping his brother would do the same. Today, Abdel is among hundreds of refugees still missing.

Although the exact number is unknown, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that around 4,700 refugees in Chadian camps were abducted last month. Most were taken in the span of three days in mid-March from the camps of Treguine and Bredjing, when unidentified rebels went from tent to tent looking for potential fighters, according to refugees and the UNHCR. Women who tried to cling to their men were beaten back mercilessly, say witnesses. Some men who resisted were tied up at knifepoint and carried off in vehicles. Many of those taken say they saw people tied up and left in the sun for days, or witnessed beatings. Some were killed.

Among the dusty tents and straw shacks of the refugee camps, the clumps of frightened people do not even know who attacked them, although most of the refugees who escaped agree their kidnappers spoke with Sudanese accents. At least four rebel groups - some Sudanese, some Chadian - are now active along the chaotic border between the two countries.

Chadian rebel groups aiming to oust President Idriss Deby before next week's elections have grown rapidly and mobilized in recent months. Two weeks ago, hundreds of Chadian rebels made it to Chad's capital, N'Djamena in an unsuccessful coup.

Meanwhile, Sudanese rebel factions in Darfur continue to battle the government-backed Arabic-speaking janjaweed militias, as they have for more than three years. Both the Chadian and Sudanese rebels have abducted refugees to fight. But now humanitarian agencies are concerned that forced recruitment of refugees by the Sudanese rebels could be used as a pretext for the janjaweed to attack the camps in Chad.

Since the Darfur conflict began in 2003, about 2 million people have been displaced, and around 200,000 people have died, leading the US to accuse Sudan of genocide and the UN to consider a peacekeeping mission. In a tape released last weekend, Osama bin Laden called for a holy war against any Western troops that may enter Darfur.

African Union mediators presented a new draft peace agreement to Darfur's warring parties Tuesday at talks in Abuja, Nigeria, and urged them to sign it by the agreed-upon deadline Sunday.

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