N'Djamena / Geneva (ICRC) – After one of the
heaviest clashes so far between government troops and opposition forces took place on 9 December, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was the first humanitarian organization to reach
the area of the fighting.
The ICRC is currently evacuating some 45 wounded people from Biltine and Arada, respectively located 85 km and 150 km north of Abéché, in eastern
Chad.
One truck and four Land Cruisers are being used to take them to the hospital in Abéché.
The ICRC has also re-supplied the hospital in Biltine with medicines and
first-aid kits and assisted the Red Cross of Chad in its efforts to collect and identify the dead.
The ICRC recently increased its personnel in the east of the country.
In the
last few days, two of its surgical teams have operated on more than 50 seriously wounded people in Abéché and N'Djamena.
Hôpital Liberté in N'Djamena, where the ICRC
runs a surgical training programme, has admitted over 60 war-wounded who were evacuated from the east by the Chadian authorities.
Those being treated in Abéché and N'Djamena
include both government troops and opposition forces, and a few civilians who were hit by stray bullets.
The ICRC has also visited three detention facilities in Abéché and
registered persons held in connection with the fighting in Abéché on 24 November.
It continues to monitor the situation of detainees held in N'Djamena and to carry out operations
for displaced Chadians sheltering along the Sudanese border in the Dar Sila and Assoungha prefectures.
The ICRC has been present in eastern Chad since 2004.
It recently stepped
up its humanitarian assistance when the internal conflict caused thousands of Chadians to flee their homes.
Today the ICRC is assisting over 40,000 displaced Chadians and the communities
that are hosting them by increasing their water supply, providing them with emergency shelter and non-food items, running livestock and agricultural programmes to help them maintain their livelihoods
and supporting the health facilities that serve them.
The ICRC also visits more than 50 places of detention in Chad, where over 300 detainees captured during the fighting in N'Djamena last
April are being held.
For further information, please contact: Anahita Kar, ICRC Chad, tel: +235 620 10 05 Marco Jiménez Rodríguez, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22
730 22 71 or +41 79 217 32 17>br>
