Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

CHAD: Aid officials weigh return to area hit by clashes
08 May 2009 19:40:06 GMT
 Source: IRIN

Background

•  Chad troubles

•  Food and hunger

•  W. African food crisis

MORE >>
DAKAR, 8 May 2009 (IRIN) - UN officials in Chad are assessing whether it is safe for humanitarian staff to return to an area in the east where clashes this week between rebels and government forces forced out most aid workers.

UN security officials are set in the coming days to assess the security situation in the town of Koukou – 200km south of the main eastern city of Abéché – where 20,000 refugees and 40,000 displaced Chadians live. Aid staff from the UN and some NGOs were evacuated on 6 May to the nearby town of Goz Beida as a result of the fighting.

"Based on the results of that evaluation we will decide whether our staff can return to the area," Eliane Duthoit, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Chad, told IRIN.

Duthoit praised the work of the UN mission in Chad, MINURCAT, in facilitating the evacuation of aid staff from Koukou.

Rebels in Chad have repeatedly traversed the country in recent years in an attempt to oust President Idriss Deby, with clashes periodically interrupting aid to the quarter-million Sudanese refugees and some 166,000 displaced Chadians living in the east. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76558

UN aid officials said food and other basic supplies are stocked in camps across eastern Chad so a brief suspension of aid worker presence does not affect the daily survival of refugees and IDPs.

"These are not people who will die of hunger in two days; basic supplies are there," Duthoit said. "But we must hope that the interruption does not last long."

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) suspended a food distribution that was underway for the refugees in Koukou, WFP-Chad reports officer Amélie Rwankineza told IRIN from the capital N'djamena.

"There are 530 tonnes of food at the camp and some of the refugees had already received their monthly rations," she said.

Flights by the WFP-run humanitarian aircraft were temporarily suspended to some areas on 5 May but resumed on 8 May, UN workers said.

Marzio Babille, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative in Chad, told IRIN: "Though humanitarian activities slowed down this week there was no major impact on basic services." But he said one concern is what remaining rebels will do following the clashes with government troops. "What they could do to civilians or to aid workers – that remains a question."

On 8 May aid workers told IRIN all was calm in Abéché, the humanitarian hub in the east.

MINURCAT

The latest events point to a need to build up MINURCAT, which is charged with protecting civilians and facilitating aid operations in eastern Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

The mission, which replaced a European Union force in March, is eventually to have 5,200 troops in eastern Chad; for now 2,115 are there, according to Touré.

MINURCAT has stepped up patrols in and around Koukou, spokesperson Penangnini Touré told IRIN from Abéché.

MINURCAT has 466 troops based in Goz Beida, the town near Koukou, along with Chadian and UN police, he said.

Pauline Ballaman, head of Oxfam Intermon in Chad, said: "One concern about Koukou is that there is no permanent MINURCAT or DIS [UN-trained Chadian police and gendarmes] presence, in an area with more than 60,000 refugees and displaced persons," Ballaman said. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77710

"Aid groups had expressed concern about gaps when MINURCAT took over from EUFOR," she added. "MINURCAT is still setting up and there are not adequate troops for all of eastern Chad. Pressure needs to be put on the international community who have promised troops for MINURCAT."

map http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/chad.pdf

np/aj

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Security

•  Food and hunger

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  W. African hunger

•  Chad troubles

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Sri Lanka: ICRC evacuates 495 from conflict zone and delivers 25 tonnes of food
ICRC - Switzerland

•  MSF forced to reduce its emergency activities in north-western Pakistan
MSF International

•  UMCOR Hotline for May 5, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  World's largest humanitarian network launches ambitious new campaign
ICRC - Switzerland

•  Internal displacement at record high
NRC

MORE >>

Latest news

•  CHAD: Aid officials weigh return to area hit by clashes

•  Sudan, Chad trade accusations of aiding rebels

•  Eastern Chad violence threatens refugee aid - U.N.

•  Violence in eastern Chad threatens refugee aid-U.N.

•  ERITREA: Climate-proofing for the future

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Briefings
W. African hunger - [Who works where]
Chad troubles - [Who works where]

Topics
Security Food and hunger
Facts & figures
Chad
Statistics graphs
Refugees residing here (2007)
Chart for Refugees residing here
View more stats >>

Related articles

Breaking stories
 CHAD: Aid officials weigh return to area hit by clashes (1 minute ago)

Sudan, Chad trade accusations of aiding rebels (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 Researchers urge rules to stop 'land-grabbing' worsening hunger (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Sri Lanka: ICRC evacuates 495 from conflict zone and delivers 25 tonnes of food (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Sri Lanka's plight highlighted at World Press Freedom Day (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP:Weather hazards impacts assessment for Africa (May 7 - 13, 2009) (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-05T223434Z_01_AFR01_RTRIDSP_2_SOMALIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-05T185330Z_01_AFR02_RTRIDSP_2_SOMALIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR02.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-01T080314Z_01_DAR14_RTRIDSP_2_FLU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DAR14.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-01T075610Z_01_AFR03_RTRIDSP_2_SUDAN-KIDNAP-KHARTOUM_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/AFR03.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-05-01T073510Z_01_DAR11_RTRIDSP_2_FLU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DAR11.htm

A woman holds her malnourished child at the Banaadir Hospital in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, May 5, 2009. Thousands of Somalis are suffering from malnutrition, lack of clean water and ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri May 8 19:40:40 2009