UN refugee agency staff member shot dead in Chad

A staff member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was shot dead during a shooting incident in Chad yesterday, prompting the agency and the Government to examine the circumstances surrounding the killing.

Mahmat Mahamadou, a driver based at the UNHCR Field Office in Danamadji in the south of Chad, where UNHCR cares for over 43,000 refugees from the Central African Republic, was returning alone in a vehicle after delivering a staff member to a regular meeting point for transfer of staff members when he was attacked, according to a spokesman for the agency.

“We are shocked and saddened” by the killing, said William Spindler.

“The circumstances surrounding the shooting are still not clear and we are working with the Chadian authorities to find out exactly what happened,” he told the press in Geneva, where UNHCR is headquartered.

This is the first fatality UNHCR has suffered in its operations in Chad.