Chad: Central African Refugees moved away from border in south
Briefing Notes, 18 March 2008
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 18 March 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
In southern Chad, UNHCR has started transferring some of the estimated 14,000 refugees who recently fled insecurity in the Central African Republic (CAR) away from the border to a temporary transit site 25 km further inland. A first group of 693 people was relocated on Saturday from the border town of Maya to a temporary transit site near the village of Dembo.
By the end of the week, we expect to have moved around 4,250 refugees to the Dembo site opened by UNHCR, its partner African Concern and local authorities. Refugees get tents, blankets, mats, jerry cans and plastic sheeting from UNHCR when they arrive and the World Food Programme is organizing a food distribution.
We plan to further relocate the refugees from Dembo to established refugee camps near Goré, the main town in south Chad, as Dembo is vulnerable to flooding during the upcoming rainy season
The 14,000 refugees have fled rebel and bandit attacks in the north-west CAR since the beginning of the year. These threats also exist in the border region. Before this latest influx, southern Chad was hosting some 45,000 Central Africans in four camps.
Silent Success
Despite being chased from their homes in the Central African Republic and losing their livelihoods, Mbororo refugees have survived by embracing a new way of life in neighbouring Cameroon.
The Mbororo, a tribe of nomadic cattle herders from Central African Republic, started fleeing their villages in waves in 2005, citing insecurity as well as relentless targeting by rebel groups and bandits who steal their cattle and kidnap women and children for ransom.
They arrived in the East and Adamaoua provinces of Cameroon with nothing. Though impoverished, the host community welcomed the new arrivals and shared their scant resources. Despite this generosity, many refugees died of starvation or untreated illness.
Help arrived in 2007, when UNHCR and partner agencies began registering refugees, distributing food, digging and rehabilitating wells as well as building and supplying medical clinics and schools, which benefit refugees and the local community and promote harmony between them. The Mbororo were eager to learn a new trade and set up farming cooperatives. Though success didn't come immediately, many now make a living from their crops.
Mbororo refugees continue to arrive in Central African Republic - an average of 50 per month. The long-term goal is to increase refugees' self-reliance and reduce their dependency on humanitarian aid.
Silent Success
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
Chad's other refugee crisis
While attention focuses on the Darfuris in eastern Chad, another refugee crisis unfolds in southern Chad.
A second refugee crisis has been quietly unfolding in the south of Chad for the past few years, getting little attention from the media and the international community. Some 60,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) are hosted there in five camps and receive regular assistance from UNHCR. But funding for aid and reintegration projects remains low. Refugees have been fleeing fighting between rebel groups and governmental forces in northern CAR. 17,000 new refugees have arrived from northern CAR to south-eastern Chad since the beginning of 2009.
Chad's other refugee crisis
Central African Republic: The Forgotten Crisis
On a mission to Central African Republic, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres described the violence and forced displacement in the country as a forgotten tragedy.
The Mbororo: A way of life at risk
Systematic attacks on settlements in Central African Republic have forced more than 60,000 people from the Mbororo tribe to flee to neighbouring Cameroon. UNHCR is trying to help these nomadic herdsmen restart their lives.
Chad: Influx from Central African Republic
The conflict in Central African Republic (CAR) receives far less media attention than that in Darfur, but the effects are much the same. More than 17,000 people have crossed into Chad since January, bringing the total number of CAR refugees to almost 70,000.
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