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Aid work halted in east Chad village after violence
11 Jul 2008 17:27:30 GMT
 Source: Reuters
N'DJAMENA, July 11 (Reuters) - International aid workers have temporarily suspended their work at a village in eastern Chad following attacks on their compounds and ethnic violence, British aid agency Oxfam said on Friday.

At least one person, a local canton chief, was killed in violent incidents over the last week at Kerfi, 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Goz-Beida, Oxfam officials said. Oxfam has been providing water and santitation to more than 11,000 people at Kerfi, including several thousand displaced by violence.

Humanitarian workers say a state of lawlessness and impunuity persists in many parts of eastern Chad, despite the presence of around 3,000 European Union troops who have a United Nations mandate to protect refugees, civilians and aid groups.

Rebels opposed to Chadian President Idriss Deby launched a offensive in the east last month, briefly occupying some towns, including Goz-Beida, and clashing with government soldiers.

Deby accuses neighbour Sudan of backing the rebels, a charge denied by Khartoum which says Deby is supporting anti-governent insurgents in the western Sudanese Darfur region.

"Insecurity remains a constant problem in Chad and the Government of Chad should work to curtail the environment of impunity which permeates eastern Chad," Oxfam Great Britain's Country Director for Chad, Roland Van Hauwermeiren, said.

Oxfam said it had temporarily evacuated its staff from Kerfi after six armed men entered the group's compound late on Sunday, firing shots and trying to burn down a house where the staff were hiding. Other NGO compounds in Kerfi were also threatened.

Two days later, a canton chief of the Moro ethnic comunity was killed in a clash with Chadian army soldiers at Kerfi as tensions rose between the Moro and Dadjo communities.

"We are afraid it could get worse, so we took this step to temporarily suspend activities," Oxfam's spokeswoman in Chad, Judith Enriquez-Sarano said.

Two other humanitarian groups, MSF Holland and International Relief and Development, also suspended activities at Kerfi.

But Enriquez-Sarano said Oxfam was continuing to work at other sites in east Chad, where U.N. relief agencies and NGOs are helping to care for 250,000 Sudanese refugees scattered in 12 refugee camps, and 180,000 internally displaced Chadians.

The EU troops deployed in Chad have been hard-pressed to provide security for aid operations in the vast rugged east.

In May, two Chadian gendarmes guarding a U.N. refugee agency camp at Touloum were killed by armed men and French aid worker was killed by gunmen in an earlier incident. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by Pascal Fletcher, Editing by David Lewis)


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