Chad: Bring us security to return home

Within the past three years, insecurity remains the primary obstacle to the return of Chadians who have been forced to flee their villages, located in the south-eastern areas of Chad bordering Sudan. Insecurity and violence are also increasingly hampering the provision of assistance to the people displaced as aid agencies come under recurrent attacks by armed men on the roads or in their compounds.

The security situation has deteriorated drastically within the past two years and has become widespread given the persistent climate of impunity. In May 2007, I visited eastern Chad and I was able to travel by car from Abeche to Goz Beida and Koukou without any concern. I just returned from another visit in June with my colleague Erin Weir and we could not do the same because of highway banditry.

The increasing presence of marauding armed men is also affecting civilians as it is disrupting and destabilizing the economic networks of people in the region including those who are displaced. I met several women and men in sites for Chadian displaced people. One of the women I spoke to, who fled in November 2007 in search of safety, says that she feels relatively safe within her new site. However she is afraid of armed men on horseback who roam around the areas where she searches for firewood. (Firewood is sold by the displaced at local markets to earn money.) Some men also said that they are afraid to take their livestock to graze in fields far from their sites because they can be raided, beaten and robbed by armed men. Many displaced Chadians we met said that security should be restored in the area before they could fully resume their traditional social and economic activities.

People displaced in eastern Chad are in limbo as they cannot return home to resume their traditional lifestyle and cannot integrate within their areas of displacement because the resources available to them are not sufficient to address their needs. Nonetheless, there are ways to confront these challenges. My colleague and I released two reports calling on UN officials, international agencies and donor governments to establish lasting security and promote sustainable returns. The people of Chad are counting on these officials to act.
-Mpako Foaleng

Meeting our Match

Two weeks ago, we launched a matching gift campaign in honor of World Refugee Day. We are happy to report that we raised over $24,000 from people across the country in just five days. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank these donors, and all of you who support our work by donating, telling your friends about us, signing petitions, or just staying current on the plight of refugees by reading this blog.

The money raised will go directly to supporting our recent mission in Chad and all of our work around the world. In Chad, Mpako Foaleng and Erin Weir just assessed the dangers being faced by over 400,000 Sudanese refugees and Chadian internally displaced people. Mpako and Erin have just finished talking directly to European Union and United Nations officials in Brussels and Geneva about ways to ensure these people have food, shelter and protection from further violence. Next week, they will return to the US, where they will demand action from the US Congress and Department of State to support displaced people who desperately need our help.

We accept no government or UN funding – this allows us to say what needs to be said to those who need to hear it, and to push policy makers into doing what they don’t necessarily want to do.

Watch this video to learn more about our work and some of our achievements – achievements that are made possible by you.

--Megan Fowler

Chad: Before the Rainy Season

“The music has played again as is the case almost every year before the rainy season starts in eastern Chad.” This was a metaphor used by a Chadian in eastern Chad last month to describe the recent attacks by rebel groups against the government’s forces. The latest attack is one of many that has contributed -- together with ethnic tensions and the spill over of Sudan’s Darfur crisis -- to destabilizing eastern Chad in the last five years.

I recently visited Habile, a site for internally displaced people (IDPs) situated near the border between Chad and Darfur. Almost 29,000 Chadians have taken refuge there. In addition, more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees forced to flee violence and human rights abuses in Darfur, are currently hosted in Goz Amer camp, a mere eight kilometers away. They will not be able to return home to Darfur anytime soon, given the persistent insecurity in their villages.

However, in Habile, people are starting to consider returning home, especially those whose villages are located in relatively secure areas. Ahead of the rainy season, some people have returned to cultivate their land and start re-building their homes. One woman told me that if the security situation in her village continued to improve, her husband and their 4 children would return permanently.

This glimmer of hope is not shared by the majority of IDPs in Habile. People whose villages are located close to the border with Sudan are not planning to return soon. They are still afraid of attacks, killings and the loss of their property. The root causes of the violence that has forced people to flee their villages have not yet been properly addressed. In some border areas, there are no local authorities or government security forces, leaving these villages vulnerable to attack by armed rebels coming from Sudan.

The latest rebel attacks in the region have made things worse. In the past, Chadian rebel incursions have been followed by armed men on horseback from Sudan who profit from the chaos. They attack and kill civilians, and loot people’s property. These incursions have also generated tensions between communities, breaking the social fabric and weakening the traditional mechanisms for conflict prevention and management.

The UN Refugee Agency has been facilitating a dialogue between the leaders of the displaced communities and those from their home villages. Such initiatives have to be revitalised and understood as an integral part of a broader reconciliation process that will bring trust back among the different communities. This will set the stage so that when people return home to cultivate their land before the next rainy season, they can re-enter their communities and rebuild their lives.

-Mpako Foaleng

World Refugee Day: Reflections from Chad

This Friday, June 20, is World Refugee Day. It is a day to recognize the struggle of some 12 million refugees worldwide who have been forced out of their homes and homelands by fear, conflict, and persecution. It is also an opportunity for many of us to try to appreciate just what it means to have a safe place to go home to, and to remember that no conflict happens in isolation. Insecurity anywhere threatens peace everywhere.

Consider this; there are almost 3 million refugees in Africa, many of whom have escaped one dangerous place, only to find themselves in the heart of another conflict.

Today, I am writing from Chad, a country rocked by its own protracted civil war, internal ethnic tensions, and widespread banditry. Still, it hosts roughly 243,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing indiscriminate attacks, summary executions, bombings, and the destruction of whole villages in neighboring Darfur. My colleague and I met a woman who had fled Darfur just 3 months ago with her four children. She told us how she crossed the border and lived under a tree with seven other families for six weeks before being moved to a refugee camp in eastern Chad. Days before I met this woman, Chadian rebels launched a new offensive in eastern Chad.

The two conflicts are interrelated, and the human fallout can be seen in both countries. Still – inexplicably -- the massive popular and political interest in Darfur stops at the Sudan/Chad border, and the international community has proven itself to be unwilling to take a regional approach to the resolution of these interlinked crises.

The world has chosen to care about Sudan, and yet the ongoing crisis in Chad has been all but ignored by international policy makers.

In contrast to this game of pick-and-choose that the international community has been content to play in they case of Chad and Sudan, the laws that protect refugees -- the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and the Geneva Conventions – are built on the premise of common humanity, and the equal value of every human life. Similarly, the UN was built on the recognition that violent instability in any country represents a threat to international peace and security.

The world is small. Violence and suffering anywhere will have consequences for us everywhere.

While we recognize the tremendous challenges faced and overcome by refugees in the world today, also take a moment to remember that the modern history of conflict and refugee movements shows us just how interlinked our lives are. Conflict all too quickly reaches out and crosses the lines we have drawn to separate ourselves from our neighbors.

--Erin Weir

Honor World Refugee Day with a gift to Refugees International. Two generous donors have promised to match every online gift this week, dollar for dollar, in support of our work for refugees in Chad and around the world. Double your impact and give today.

Chad: Political Chaos A Threat To Displaced People Region-Wide

The push of Sudan-backed rebels into the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, poses a serious threat, not only to the government of President Idriss Deby, but to the humanitarian relief efforts in the country. An estimated 440,000 displaced people have sought refuge in eastern and southern Chad: 230,000 refugees from Darfur, 170,000 internally displaced Chadians, and 44,000 refugees from the Central African Republic. These people depend on a fragile relief operation that has to deliver large quantities of food and other basic supplies across a country with poor infrastructure and security. The Chad operation has never been as robust or as well-funded as that in Darfur, and the political chaos, if prolonged, with jeopardize it further.

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution this afternoon condemning the rebels and authorizing member states to help the country resist the attackers. The Chadian government is hardly blameless, however. President Deby originally came to power in 1990 through an armed revolt, and his government has been providing assistance to rebel movements contesting the Sudanese government's control of Darfur.

The rebel offensive came on the eve of the deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force along the eastern border with Darfur. Orginally proposed by the French, this force is intended to help stabilize the border region and protect civilians and the humanitarian groups aiding them. Analysts are speculating that the rebels attacked precisely to prevent this force from deploying, since its presence would hamper their operations in the border region and would work against the interests of their Sudanese government patrons.

The fact is that the central government in N'Djamena has but a tenuous hold on governing the country. But wealth from the newfound oil, coupled with Chad's pivotal position in relation to the Darfur conflict and the political future of Sudan, means that the stakes of controlling the state apparatus are high. Even if the current crisis is averted, there will be other moves to seize power from the weak Deby government.

The potential impact of a pro-Khartoum government in Chad is unknown. The worst case scenario would be organized moves to dismantle the refugee camps and force Darfuri refugees back to Sudan. A government led by groups sympathetic to Sudan would also likely withdraw permission for European Union and UN peacekeepers to deploy on Chadian soil.

Caring for Kaela, the only Washington-based advocacy organization working on Chad, has called for an "inclusive national peace conference" to resolve Chad's on-going political instability. This seems unlikely in the current political environment, and it is unclear if even the former colonial power, France, has the political will or the means to defuse the conflict and foster a national dialogue. But without this step, more conflict is inevitable, as is more vulnerability for displaced people in Chad.

-Joel Charny

Still No Protection for the Displaced in Chad

Internal displacement in eastern Chad is a humanitarian crisis that continues to get little international attention. Resources and media attention have often been more focused on the Sudanese refugees who have crossed into Chad after fleeing the ongoing violence in Darfur, while people in Chad who have been displaced by violence inside their own country are regularly neglected. But as this recent report on internal displacement in eastern Chad by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre highlights, the situation for this vulnerable population is deteriorating.

In a press release issued today, IDMC describes what the displaced are facing:

Targeted attacks against civilians, mainly women and children, have included arbitrary killings, mutilations, and rape. Rebel and militia groups and the Chadian army itself are reported to be recruiting children in IDP sites to fight for them. Civilians have often had their houses, livestock and other property destroyed or stolen, while humanitarian workers have also been subjected to attacks and physical threats.

The situation in eastern Chad did get a nod recently in the press. In his latest column, NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof shares an account by the actress Mia Farrow, who has traveled many times to eastern Chad in her role as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. She told Kristof that eastern Chad is starting to look like Somalia (login required), with protection of civilians decreasing as the number of armed rebels increases.

Refugees International conducted a mission to Chad in March 2007. We found that there has been a lack of response by the government and international agencies to assist the more than 170,000 internally displaced people in the eastern part of the country. The internally displaced who RI spoke with are regularly at risk of attack and receive no support from the government - "security is elusive as the Chadian military is occupied elsewhere with its fight against rebel groups, leaving no one who can deter attacks and punish aggressors."

On a positive note, last month France began airlifting humanitarian aid to eastern Chad in order to assist the internally displaced. Refugees International urges the U.S. and other countries to add to these efforts.

Wait... and Wait... and Wait (Chad)

Children in Kerfi, Chad collect water from a water hole.
(photo credit: Refugees International/Rick Neal)

Rick Neal sends more in from Chad today. He just returned from Goz Beida, a town near the Sudanese border in southeastern Chad that Refugees International last visited in March 2006.

"I just got back to Abeche - and internet access - from Goz Beida. I can't say that the tens of thousands of displaced people seeking shelter there from attacks on their villages have been abandoned, but they certainly have been left to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

It's only now, sometimes a year after being driven out of their homes, that they're getting some help - some food, a fresh water source, visits by humanitarian agencies to make sure they're okay.

For some reason, relief agencies have been very slow to help out these displaced. It seems that the government asked that no one help them, to encourage them to go home. It wasn't that simple, though.

They didn't abandon their homes and livelihoods just to get handouts; they fled because they were in danger of being killed. So they chose to stay where they felt safe, even with no help. Now that it's clear to everyone that these people cannot go home, the UN and NGOs are starting to help.

There are still some who are waiting, however. Yesterday, I drove for about an hour to a place south of Goz Beida called Kerfi. It's a small windswept village, houses built from straw, the air hot and dry. On its edge are hundreds of smaller shelters, the temporary home of about 4,000 people driven out of their nearby villages back in November.

They are coping on their own - collecting firewood to sell, working for residents in Kerfi - so they can buy something to eat. They also use the skills they muster when drought comes. They boil leaves or a certain fruit from palm trees, and give the soup to their children. Doctors Without Borders - practically the only agency that has been helping the displaced from the beginning of the crisis - reports that malnutrition rates are rising.

And they wait - for a food distribution promised by the World Food Programme, for someone to come and find water, for the government to do something to protect them against marauders who drove them off their land and stole their livestock.

Safety and security are the big worries, and there are no easy answers. I heard from journalists last night that the president of Chad has rejected an initial proposal by the UN to deploy a force to patrol the border area with Darfur. Even if they work it out, it'll be months before troops arrive.

In the meantime, there are other villages that have not yet been attacked, but are waiting, too, for what is perhaps inevitable. Who will protect them? There are 2,000 French forces in Chad, providing logistical support to the Chadian army. If the United Nations asked them, would they accept a new mandate, to move out to the border and help keep people safe?"

A Trial for Crimes in Darfur

Check out this op-ed on Darfur by UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie in today's Washington Post. Our advocate Rick Neal recently met the actress while they were both traveling through Abeche, Chad.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) just announced the indictments of two Sudanese, a government official and a militia commander, for atrocities committed in Darfur.

In her op-ed, Angelina writes:

Accountability is a powerful force. It has the potential to change behavior -- to check aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has said that genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated offense. He's right. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers' calculus will change.

RI supports the ICC's actions on Darfur as well. Our President Ken Bacon is quoted as saying:

Many attacks by government forces and government-backed militias have targeted innocent civilians, including acts of murder, torture and mass rape. We applaud the ICC for treating these crimes with the seriousness they deserve and urge the international community to support the court’s efforts in bringing justice to Darfur.

Wasn't that Angelina Jolie?

On Sunday, Rick Neal landed in Chad's capital N'Djamena (via Paris) to begin a month-long mission looking at internally displaced people (IDPs) in Chad and the Central African Republic. He sent the following in today:

"Sunday was Oscar Night in Los Angeles, but there in Paris Angelina Jolie was making her way to the flight to N'Djamena, surrounded by a coterie of Air France staff. I found myself with her again yesterday morning, on the small UN plane coming out to Abeche, the humanitarian outpost in eastern Chad. She flew on to Bahai in the northeast, to shed light on the situation of refugees coming from Darfur. For a few minutes, at least, Refugees International got to bask in the light of humanitarian celebrity.

"Then it was back to work - my first day in the field for a mission looking at the situation among refugees and IDPs in eastern Chad. From here, it is difficult to tell what is happening: a huge caseload of 230,000 refugees from Darfur, and now 100,000 IDPs, many displaced in the past few months. I was afraid that this was a continuing trend, but it seems that displacement, especially in the southeast, has tapered off since President Deby visited the area last November for 10 days of consultations with the local chiefs.

"I am on my way down there now. I have to cut this short to make sure I don't miss my flight to the airport. I hope I find that attacks against civilians have stopped and that the IDPs are getting the help they need."