Humanitarian Emergency in Eastern Chad

From MISNAMay 22, 2009

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Humanitarian emergency in Eastern Chad
Humanitarian emergency in Eastern Chad

The humanitarian situation is ‘under control’ in the area of Goz Beida, 10 days after the end of the fighting at the Sudanese border between the Chadian army and the UFR rebellion, which is said to have been defeated, as reported by the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA) describing the situation in eastern Chad. OCHA said that aid workers, after having been evacuated with the help of the UN mission in the Central African Rep. (MINURCAT), have gradually started to return to the area marked by the fighting, especially Koukou.

A minimum of aid workers and sufficient supplies are necessary – said OCHA – in order to address the basic needs of the population, even if the context is not secure, seeing the growing number of ambushes, some deadly as in the case of Goz Amer. Because of unexploded mines and shells, in the area of the fighting, there are also munitions cleanup campaigns.

As for the subject of health the International Red Cross is trying to improve the ability of some hospitals to handle the wounded and people needing care. The extent of child poverty is of great concern: two months away from the next harvest, cases of acute malnutrition have increased significantly, hitting mostly children living in refugee camps, especially in nutritional centers managed by medicines sans frontieres (Msf) in Adé and Kerfi.

The WFP has recently spoken about the problems of schools, which need at least 88,000 meals a day, even though the fighting has kept students away from the classrooms in the past few weeks. The Un Committee Against Torture (CAT) has also expressed fear over the situation in eastern Chad, denouncing “sexual violence against women and children and vast scale torture” perpetrated in the refugee camps that house some 450,000 people, including refugees from Sudan and the Central African Rep.

CAT adds that “in total impunity, militias, groups and armed forces” perpetrate violence that then gives way to “solutions negotiated by village leaders in the form of indemnity, preventing, in effect, any legal measures from being carried out towards the guilty parties”; CAT asked Chadian authorities about such violations asking it to set up “information campaigns” to encourage the victims to formally denounce them.