Insecurity in Chad plays havoc with efforts to aid hundreds of thousands – UN

Rampant insecurity continues to wreak havoc on humanitarian activities across eastern Chad, disrupting access to hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and putting further strain on field teams already reduced in strength due to security considerations, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

“We continue to advocate for the deployment of a multi-dimensional presence to strengthen security in eastern Chad,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond said at a news briefing in Geneva.

“UNHCR is profoundly concerned about the unrelenting insecurity throughout eastern Chad and the precarious conditions in which literally hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees from Darfur and internally displaced Chadians fear for their lives,” he added.

“We are also worried about renewed reports of recruitment by all sides of refugees and IDPs (internally displaced persons) in several camps and displacement sites. We have approached Chadian authorities and the refugees themselves to stress the urgent need to maintain the civilian character of camps.”

Fighting yesterday in Adre between Chadian anti-government forces and the Chadian army left about a dozen civilians dead and at least 40 wounded, Mr. Redmond noted.

Heavy fighting forced all aid agencies in Farchana, about an hour’s drive west of Adre, to remain at their bases for the entire day. As a result, agencies did not have access to three refugee camps housing some 62,000 refugees from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.

In the Goz Beida area of south-eastern Chad yesterday, four trucks transporting aid supplies donated by the Government of Chad for thousands of IDPs were attacked by armed men on horseback.

Earlier this week, humanitarian agencies operating in the Goz Beida/Koukou region were confined to their bases due to persistent insecurity throughout the area, but today they were able to go to Djabal and Goz Amir refugee camps, which host a combined population of 33,000.

Meanwhile, in Guereda ongoing hostilities between the Tama and Zaghawa communities threaten to have a “disastrous effect” on the ability of humanitarian agencies to provide assistance to the nearby Kounoungou and Mile refugee camps, which respectively host 13,000 and 15,500 Sudanese refugees, Mr. Redmond said.

“We have decided to temporarily relocate some of our staff in Guereda until the situation calms down,” he added, describing scenes of bloodshed. “Dozens of wounded combatants have reportedly been evacuated to the hospital in Guereda. Several days ago, a couple of local children playing with unexploded ordnance they had come across suffered major injuries, requiring amputation of their legs.”

There are 230,000 Sudanese refugees and 110,000 IDPs in eastern Chad as well as 46,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) in the south.