Eastern Chad: staff relocation

In eastern Chad, most of our staff are returning today (Tuesday) to Koukou Angarana, at the border with Sudan, after being briefly relocated to a safer area further inland. Last Wednesday, 18 of UNHCR staff members had to leave Koukou to Goz Beida, about 50 kms away, because of the volatile security situation, with government forces and anti-governmental groups fighting in the east.

Two staff had stayed in Koukou to ensure that basic assistance activities were continuing for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the area. A total of 22,000 refugees from Darfur are hosted in the nearby camp of Goz Amer while some 60,000 IDPs are scattered in different sites in the surroundings of Koukou.

With the improvement in the security situation over the past few days, all of our staff members are now able to regain access to our office in Koukou and to the refugee camp in Goz Amer and to the IDP sites.

In eastern Chad, UNHCR and its humanitarian partners take care of 252,000 refugees from neighbouring Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Refugees are in 12 camps stretched along the remote Chad-Sudan border. There are also 166,000 internally displaced Chadians in the east. In addition, we are also assisting 70,600 refugees from the Central African Republic in six sites in southern Chad.