Chad: Concerns over deteriorating security
Briefing Notes, 4 December 2007
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 4 December 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
We are concerned about the deteriorating security situation in eastern Chad after fighting over the past 10 days between various rebel forces and the government army has limited our access to some refugee camps and left refugees and displaced people feeling extremely insecure.
The fighting, mainly in the Farchana (Hadjer Hadid), Iriba, Biltine and Guéréda areas located north and east of Abéché – our main operational base for the 12 refugee camps – has generally taken place away from inhabited areas and has not caused any population movements. But refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as the local population have told UNHCR that they live in fear that the already volatile situation may worsen.
Refugees in camps in Farchana, Guéréda, Iriba and Goz Beida further south – which together host some 212,000 refugees from Darfur – are starting to suffer the consequences of the volatile situation. UNHCR and its partners only had limited access to these refugee areas in the past week due to the insecurity. All essential services are however, still running in the camps.
Over 130 humanitarian aid workers from various organisations, blocked in the town of Hadjer Hadid south-west of Farchana since 24 November by heavy fighting, were finally relocated yesterday, Monday, to Abéché. The volatile situation has also prompted an increase in banditry. We continue to monitor the security situation very closely.
Together with our partners, we are taking care of 240,000 refugees from Darfur in eastern Chad. We also assist 180,000 IDPs near Farchana, Goz Beida and Koukou-Angarana.
The Nubians in Kenya
In the late 1880s, Nubians from Sudan were conscripted into the British army. The authorities induced them to stay in Kenya by granting them homesteads and issuing them British colonial passports. The Nubians named their settlement near Nairobi, Kibra, or "land of forest." In 1917, the British government formally declared the land a permanent settlement of the Nubians. Since independence, Kenyan Nubians have had difficulty getting access to ID cards, employment and higher education and have been limited in their travel. In recent years, a more flexible approach by the authorities has helped ease some of these restric¬tions and most adult Nubians have been confirmed as Kenyan citizens, but children still face problems in acquiring Kenyan citizenship.
The Nubians in Kenya
Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote
Ahead of South Sudan's landmark January 9, 2011 referendum on independence, tens of thousands of southern Sudanese in the North packed their belongings and made the long trek south. UNHCR set up way stations at key points along the route to provide food and shelter to the travellers during their arduous journey. Several reports of rapes and attacks on travellers reinforced the need for these reception centres, where women, children and people living with disabilities can spend the night. UNHCR has made contingency plans in the event of mass displacement after the vote, including the stockpiling of shelter and basic provisions for up to 50,000 people.
Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote
Darfuri Refugees in Chad: No end in Sight
More than six years after the beginning of the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, more than a quarter-of-a-million refugees remain displaced in neighbouring Chad. Most of the refugees are women and children and many are still traumatized after fleeing across the border after losing almost everything in land and air raids on their villages.
Families saw their villages being burned, their relatives being killed and their livestock being stolen. Women and girls have been victims of rape, abuse and humiliation, and many have been ostracized by their own communities as a result.
The bulk of the refugees live in 12 camps run by UNHCR in the arid reaches of eastern Chad, where natural resources such as water and firewood are scarce. They have been able to resume their lives in relative peace, but all hope one day to return to Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of their compatriots are internally displaced.
In eastern Chad, UNHCR and other agencies are helping to take care of 180,000 internally displaced Chadians, who fled inter-ethnic clashes in 2006-2007. Some families are starting to return to their villages of origin only now.
Darfuri Refugees in Chad: No end in Sight
Sudan: A Perilous Route
Kassala camp in eastern Sudan provides shelter to thousands of refugees from Eritrea. Many of them pass through the hands of ruthless and dangerous smugglers.
Sudan: Heading for a New Home
UNHCR is offering to help move hundreds of people from Sudan to newly independent South Sudan, where they will build new lives. Almost 250 families with ties to the south are waiting for a ride.
South Sudan: Blue Nile Refugees
Refugees are streaming in from Sudan's Blue Nile Region into South Sudan, many to Doro Camp.
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