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Chad: new refugee camp for Central Africans opens in south

Briefing Notes, 27 May 2008

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 27 May 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

In a race against the start of the rainy season in mid-June, UNHCR on Friday began the transfer of 9,526 newly arrived refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) to a new camp in Moula, southern Chad. The CAR refugees are being moved from a transit centre about 25 km from the Chad-CAR border to the new Moula camp, which is some 150 km inland. Since Friday, 1,662 refugees have already been moved in two convoys. We hope to have 15-truck convoys running every two days, before the roads become impassable.

This latest wave of CAR refugees arrived in southern Chad between January and March this year following violence in northern CAR. Many reported their villages had been burned and looted, and some people killed. Smaller groups of refugees have continued to cross the border.

Initially, UNHCR had planned to transfer the group to one of our three refugee camps near Goré, our base in southern Chad. But the most recent group refused to go there, citing inter-ethnic tensions. This prompted us to build a new camp 50 km south of Danamadji, our office in south-eastern Chad.

The refugees, most of them farmers, were glad to be moving to the better-equipped camp at Moula. Each family will be granted a 2.5 hectare plot of land, and FAO will later in the year distribute seeds and tools, while WFP will distribute monthly food rations. The refugees are currently accommodated in family tents, but will soon start building their own homes.

UNHCR now operates five refugee camps in southern Chad for over 56,000 refugees from northern CAR. We also operate 12 camps in eastern Chad for some 250,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur region.

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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

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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 riskPlay video

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 RepublicPlay video

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.