Eastern Chad Odyssey

The latest lowdown

2006-06-11T19:22:00.000+01:00

CHAD: As army pursues rebels, militia massacres fill the vacuum[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]DJAWARA, 9 June (IRIN) - When the light breeze lulls in the trees around Djawara, a village in the far east of Chad, the thick stench of rotting corpses becomes unbearable. Locals say 75 of their brothers, fathers and sons are buried in 50 centimetre deep graves in this glade on the village's outskirts, killed they say by men on horses, and by their own neighbours.The bodies were hastily buried in mid-May, days after a rag-tag group of men armed with guns, spears, and machetes overran the village in a dawn attack.Arrows still lying on the ground around the trees are evidence of the futile fight the villagers said they tried to put up with primitive weapons. Six of the attackers were killed, and two taken prisoner. But the villagers clearly were no match for the better armed attackers.Witnesses interviewed by IRIN said around half of the 74 Djawara men and one woman, were shot and hacked to death while they were gathered together praying among the trees.Testimony gathered by human rights investigators has confirmed that a further 37 people were killed elsewhere in the village."Some of them were just killed where they stood. But the ones who ran were killed in the trees," recalled one Djawara villager, who IRIN met at a camp for displaced people in Dogdore, a nearby town.Two stray donkeys are now the only inhabitants of Djawara, which according to meticulous records kept by village elders in tattered notebooks they carefully took with them when they fled, was home to 1334 people before the attacks on 13 April.Smashed clay cooking pots, dozens of single sandals strewn in the sand, and trampled straw fences give some indication of the violence of the struggle that must have taken place before the people fled.And for the villagers who did get away, the threat is far from passed.Standing over the grave where he buried his cousins, showing investigators the shoes left behind as part of the local funeral tradition, Ahmed, 35, who lived in Djawara with his wife and three children before the attacks, said he would certainly be killed for daring to return if the foreigners were not there."If I had not come here with you, I would be dead," he told IRIN.Djawara is one among dozens of pillaged villages which do not appear on most maps, but whose names can be reeled off by people in the shantytowns being thrown up by fleeing villagers all over eastern Chad.Aid agencies estimate more than 50,000 Chadians have fled their homes and villages throughout eastern Chad since a rapid escalation of cross-border attacks in December 2005.According to the UN, the largest number of displaced, over 30,000, are concentrated in the area south of Adre, a major border town with Sudan, 750 kilometres east of the capital N'djamena.The displaced Chadians say repeated waves of attacks mean some of them have had to flee across some of the most inhospitable land in the world, three or four times over.And they repeat the same mantra: "we want security, and we will move as many times as we need to find it."CHRONOLOGY OF A CRISISWidespread attacks on villages in eastern Chad first started in January, after an attack on Adre by rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby in late December.The rebel attacks prompted the Chadian army to pull back to reinforce key border towns, military intelligence sources told IRIN, leaving vast swathes of the 1000 kilometre border that runs through the open desert between Chad and Sudan completely unprotected.By March, when a UN mission drove south from Ade, a town 100 kilometres south of Adre, to Degeda, it found almost every Chadian village it visited was abandoned.Then in late March, the Chadian army engaged the anti-Deby rebels again, sparking fierce fighting around Ade and Moudeina in which the army chief of staff was killed.As battalions of soldiers rushed to Ade from around the region, attacks on villages further south again surged, with up to 150 militiamen each time heading inland, stealing cattle and ransacking houses.The attacks even reached Koloy, a larger Chadian town 30 kilometres from the border, which had given shelter to perhaps more than 20,000 people from the first wave of attacks, according to UNHCR figures.Chadians started pouring out of Koloy and other villages by the truckload. Sometimes the new arrivals quadrupled the population of small villages overnight.Indicative of the overwhelming numbers, at a refugee camp near the town Goz Beida, 90 kilometres from the border, where officials expected to see around 500 new arrivals in April, more than 12,000 people arrived in just a few weeks.JANJAWID TO BLAMEYocoub, 48, originally from Amdegi village, fled his home four months ago, since when he has moved another three times, he said because of Janjawid attacks.He left his home village after armed men on horses arrived around 1am, firing into the air, before riding off with all 850 of the village's cattle.With most of his neighbours, Yocoub moved to another village believed to be less vulnerable to attack, even though it happened to be across the border in Sudan.But soon after, he said the Janjawid came there too."They destroyed everything, burned the houses, there was nothing left. So we had to move again, that time to Koloy. We got there on a Wednesday. On Thursday, the Janjawid came there, and took all the cattle again. We heard there was security here in Goz Beida, so we came."Even in Goz Beida, where Yocoub said he is glad not to have "seen or heard a gun since arriving," the succession of moves are not over. Aid agencies are relocating people to relieve pressure on overstretched water sources.Yocoub's tragic story is a common one. And none of the other victims IRIN met suggested a culprit except the Janjawid.But experts say detailed questions about the accent, appearance, clothing and weaponry of their assailants, prove the Chadians are not necessarily describing exactly the same Janjawid as has brought terror to villagers in Sudan."We use the term Janjaweed to describe the militiamen trained, equipped and armed by the Sudanese government who have been used by Khartoum as ground forces in attacks on civilians in Darfur" said Olivier Bercault, a senior researcher with the American NGO Human Rights Watch, who has investigated the massacres in eastern Chad."Now we have people definitely crossing the border with the same equipment as was used in Sudan. It is clear that some of these same Sudanese "Janjaweed" militiamen are also involved in the Chad attacks but we don't yet have sufficient evidence to say that the Chadian attacks are backed by the Sudanese government. We could clearly link the evidence with Khartoum in Darfur, but not in Chad, I mean, not yet," he said.The assailants have even included some men wearing blue Sudanese army uniforms, witnesses said. And identity papers and badges seized from two militiamen killed inside Chad, and seen by IRIN, clearly identified the attackers as members of the Sudanese national army.Adding another more confusing dimension to the mix, Chadians also said their attackers included members of other Chad-based black African ethnic groups, especially the Mimi, Tama, and Ouaddai, as well as various Arab groups.The villagers said they recognised their attackers from around their villages. Some had even prayed together at the same mosque, and were neighbours before the attacks started.MURKY MOTIVESThe motivations behind the attacks seem to be even more muddied than the identity of the perpetrators.The handful of investigators from the UN and human rights NGOs say they have barely begun the laborious process of gathering testimonials from survivors to try to piece together exactly what happened, and how it fits into the complex ethnic mosaic of the region.The head of the UNHCR office in Goz Beida, Lindell Findlay, said she thinks many of the attacks are part of a "Sudanese land grab".She said Janjawid rebels are using their newly occupied areas of Chadian territory, to regroup before ducking back into Darfur to continue attacks on Sudanese villages.Key in this analysis is whether villages are being occupied, or whether they are just being pillaged. The situation is too insecure for visits of longer than a couple of hours, making a definitive answer difficult.Most of the Chadians IRIN met nonetheless said they believed their villages were occupied, and if not, they would anyway be attacked again as soon as anyone tried to go back.Findlay also said ethnicity is determining which areas are purged and which left in peace."The Janjawid is forming alliances with ethnicities sympathetic to them, forming alliances and protective allegiances with those groups," she said, adding that the situation is becoming more confusing because some of the persecuted groups have started forming self defence forces. "It was never a problem before, but now the ethnic issue is starting to poison the mix."This analysis is certainly shared by the displaced villagers themselves, many of who come from the same ethnic group - the Dadjo."All the other groups have formed an alliance with the Janjawid," said Souleymane, a village elder from Djawara, the scene of massacres in April, and a Dadjo. There are more than 36 ethnicities in the region, he added."We Dadjo have refused the alliance. Sudan is another country, it is not Chad, so why would we have an alliance with them? And it is an association of Arabs, and the Dadjo are not Arabs either."Several of the other Chadian groups that have agreed to join the Janjawid are not Arab either. But "they are scared of having their cattle stolen if they refuse to join," Souleymane said.However, aid workers in Goz Beida who asked not to be named, told IRIN they believe the Dadjo might be being targeted by the Janjawid for having close ties to the Masalit people of Darfur, who have been the target of attacks there.The Dadjo reportedly provided most of the shelter and protection to the 200,000 Sudanese refugees that poured out of Sudan until the 12 formal refugee camps were built.In another analysis, provided by an independent human rights investigator who asked not to be named, the attacks are motivated by the same racist ideology which underpins much of the violence the Janjawid has unleashed on black Africans in Sudan."There are still many unanswered questions about these attacks, but the conclusion is clear: Chadian civilians are in dire need of protection," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said in a written statement.RAINY SEASON FEARSBut protection is likely to be in short supply during the near future for eastern Chad's terrified people, most of whom have already lost everything except their lives. Few believe the Djawara massacre will be the last. And what little outside scrutiny there has been will be absent for the next three months.Aid agencies say that by the end of June, torrential rains, which have already started flooding the dry river beds called wadis which snake all over eastern Chad, will make most of the region inaccessible to themselves and to the Chadian army, as both move only by jeep, until at least the end of September.But the Janjawid, which uses horses and camels that can easily cross the network of muddy islands, will be in its element, locals say.Fearing an onslaught of attacks even more intense than they have already seen, some Chadians are pre-emptively fleeing their land.Picking their way on donkeys and by foot through a forest of gum trees around 50 kilometres east of the border, one family said it was heading for Goz Beida, before the rainy season made passage impossible.Nervously agreeing to stop their trek for only a few minutes, and glancing over their shoulders as they spoke, the family said they had not yet been attacked.But "there's no point starting the planting, because we would probably have to leave before the crops came up," said one of the men, loaded down with spears and seeds.MILITARY WANTEDOnce the rains have passed, diplomats and aid workers say the fate of people in eastern Chad depends on Chad's government redeploying its soldiers along the border and in villages in the region.Although the government made promises to aid agencies and diplomats that more soldiers would be put on the frontier after presidential elections on 3 May, aid agency officials told IRIN that there has been no evidence of a shift in policy.And when armed horsemen - locals said Janjawid - occupied and looted the village Kou Kou in mid-May, it was left to four jeep loads of Sudanese rebels from the anti-Janjawid SLA group, which shelters in Chad, to try to keep the peace and chase down the 1000 head of cattle the attackers made off with.The Chadian national army was nowhere to be seen, despite having a major garrison less than 50 kilometres away.Military analysts in N'djamena estimate the military has less than 25,000 troops to cover a territory twice the size of France, of which just 10,000 are stationed in the east. With a rumbling rebellion in the north, as well as the Janjawid attacks along the 1,000-kilometre border with Sudan, instability in Central African Republic to the south, and an armed rebellion based in Darfur that has vowed to overthrow the president, the army has its work cut out.It may also be facing a problem with resources. Military salaries in the cash strapped country are said not to have been paid for months, and in early June many public sector staff went on strike.Opaque relations between the Zaghawa ethnic group dominated military and the Zaghawa-Bidayat president Deby could also be creating a disloyal streak in the armed forces.As one villager from Djawara noted, "the government is nowhere here. They did not even help us bury our dead."UNFLATTERING COMPARISONSNo surprise then that most observers are sanguine about Chad's future.A highly placed diplomat in N'djamena described the spiralling process of infighting between clans and ethnic groups that is rending the social fabric in eastern Chad as "a process of Somali-isation".The diplomat compared Chad to the surge in clan fighting and ethnic warfare in the east African country Somalia in the 1990s that led to the collapse of state authority there.A glimmer of hope might come from a peace accord for Darfur signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja last month, which could see peacekeepers deployed in Darfur before the end of the year, and if Chadian President Deby has his way, eastern Chad too.A mission to Darfur and Chad by the 15 members of the UN Security Council this week is likely to play a key part in deciding whether that will happen.However, the Sudanese government is already dragging its feet in negotiations over the details of a UN-led force for Darfur, which the Security Council mission was supposed to get back on track.Diplomats in N'djamena told IRIN they believe Sudan might hold off on deployment at least until September, and possibly as long as January 2007. They said Sudan is trying to give its militias time to finish their deadly work, in Darfur and Chad.In the meantime, Chad's persecuted villagers, far from information about the tentative diplomatic process that could hold the only hope for their survival, say their demand is simple: to go home."All we want is to work our land," pleaded a villager from Djawara, now squatting in Dogdore. "We just want to live peacefully, to cultivate. But now we cannot, because the Janjawid is there."To read the story of one displaced Chadian family's experience, CLICK HERENR/CCR[ENDS]

I was thinking the same!

2006-04-30T19:54:00.000+01:00

Please link to my the following website and check out the post from April 13th.

http://spaces.msn.com/hildes-world/

My sentiments exactly!

Threatening those most vulnerable - the Chadian Way

2006-04-16T12:47:00.000+01:00

CHAD: President threatens to expel Darfur refugees as attacks surge in lawless east
NDJAMENA, 14 April (IRIN) -
Chad President Idriss Deby on Friday threatened to expel 200,000 Sudanese refugees sheltering in the east of the country after repeating accusations that Sudan supports rebels who launched a new offensive to oust him this week.Deby said that the international community has until June to resolve the ongoing Darfur conflict in Sudan, which lies over Chad's eastern border, which he said would help restore stability in his own country. If not, the refugees will have to leave."If after June we can't guarantee the security of our citizens and the refugees, then it is up to the international community to find another country to shelter those refugees," he said at a pro-government rally in N'djamena on Friday morning.There are some 200,000 refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region in eastern Chad according to the UN, making it one of the world's humanitarian hot-spots. The UN's refugee agency UNHCR told IRIN on Friday afternoon that they had not been formally notified of Deby's deadline. Chad has repeatedly accused Sudan of sponsoring Chadian rebels, who this week attacked government forces in towns across the country, and on Thursday morning attacked the capital N'djamena. Sudan's foreign ministry has denied any link with the groups."We cannot accept that a neighbour employs mercenaries to destabilise us. We are waiting for France and the international community to condemn as strongly as possible this aggression," said Deby.The Darfur conflict erupted in early 2003 when the rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government in Khartoum to end what they call the neglect and oppression of the inhabitants of Darfur, western Sudan. The Sudanese government responded by backing Arab militias known as the Janjawid and a series of peace negotiation have failed to bear fruit.In eastern Chad at the Goz Beida camp, a major refugee camp some 120 km south of Abeche, the number of displaced Chadians seeking assistance is confirmed by UNHCR to have more than doubled from 3,500 to more than 7,000 over the last week alone. The new arrivals said they were fleeing bandit attacks, and many of the arrivals presumed the Janjawid were responsible, said aid workers."These bandits are taking advantage of the general state of lawlessness in the east. As government forces are mobilised to combat the rebel incursion, they have stepped into the vacuum and been pillaging villages," said UNHCR spokesman Matthew Conway.Deby issued his June deadline at a pro-government rally in the central Independence Square in N'djamena, where more than 100 of some 270 captured rebel forces were paraded before journalists. Some 300 to 400 people turned out to watch.One western diplomat who witnessed the event described it as a "show trial" as captured rebels pointed out serving soldiers they accused of being conspirators, who were publicly beaten and later detained. A representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed on Friday that at least 150 military casualties are in the army hospital following this weeks fighting, and more than 80 casualties are being treated at the general city hospital.Although conditions had returned to normal in N'djamena on Friday, with restaurants crowded and traffic circulating, there was a heavy military presence on the streets, and foreign security experts told IRIN that they were not ruling out more attacks in coming days. Rebel spokespeople have told the media that they are massing in the south for more attacks on the capital, however it has been impossible to independently verify their claims."The situation is very volatile", said a western diplomat who asked not to be named. "It's hard to imagine that anyone rational would exclude the possibility of more attacks."

Back to the heart, back to Rwanda

2006-04-07T23:14:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody,

Thank you for those you continue to click on this site from time to time. My Chadian odyssey started when I left Northern Uganda last fall (http://ugandaconflict.blogspot.com), though I have been in London most recently. I will continue to keep up this site as I can, though I am returning to my very first blog, http://kigalirwanda.blogspot.com, as I will again be returning to my first African love next month.

Best to everybody,
Kelly

A flailing President

2006-03-16T22:01:00.000+01:00

Yes, I have to say I am pleased to see Chad getting some sort of press coverage. I feel like I am a zillion miles away from the anxiety and the madness these days, but after reading today's news, I can feel it all over again - the smell in the air, the uncertainty, the anxiety of the notion that the facade will crumble...

Chad's vulnerable president
BBC

Analyst Andrew Manley explains why President Idriss Deby has appeared increasingly vulnerable in a piece written for the BBC Focus On Africa magazine shortly before Chad's government announced it had foiled a coup plot.
The phrase "power comes from the east'' has become virtually a national motto in Chad following Idriss Deby's Sudan-backed overthrow of previous Chadian head of state Hissene Habre in December 1990.
Deby, who has been slowly hemmed in by the complex ethno-political conflict that started three years ago in Sudan's Darfur region - which borders Chad to the east - does not need reminding.
Recent months have seen a spate of defections of former allies from his ruling Zagawa clan to Darfur-based Chadian rebels. With the Zagawa itself only 1.5 per cent of the country's 10 million-plus population, this was especially ominous for a president with little genuine domestic support.
Moreover, he has lost trust in the wider region due to the split with his original sponsors in Khartoum, and also in Paris.
With Libya, France has long been the major outside influence in N'Djamena, but has never recovered from what it saw as the double game Deby played over the allocation of drilling rights for the Doba Basin oil project in the far south-east during the 1990s.
French oil giant Elf walked out of the project in 1999 for various reasons, and Exxon's subsequent arrival as lead player was felt in Paris as a stinging defeat in the geopolitical game with the United States for influence in African oil territories.
Greater Zagawaland
Despite the continuing presence in Chad of France's 1,000-strong Operation Epervier force, relations remain poor.
For a man whose arrival in power was helped greatly by the French secret services, this was a wrong move.
Meanwhile, regional neighbours have never been comfortable. Gabon has long been an unofficial bolthole for some of Deby's veteran opponents from the Habre era.

Linking all these factors is what now seems to be the simple recognition by virtually all major players in Chad that the Deby era is coming to an end
And Cameroon fears N'Djamena's potential to destabilise its three northern provinces, and has long complained that the heavily-armed zaraguina - highway robber - bands that terrorise key roads in Extrême-Nord Province have been effectively exported from among unpaid elements of the Chadian armed forces.
Others remain unhappy about Chad's involvement in the chaos that has periodically engulfed the Central African Republic since the mid-1990s, much of it the work of Zagawa irregulars - including Deby clan members, who aided current head of state François Bozize to power in 2002.
Then there is the Zagawa question itself.
Even before the age of the internet, rumours have circulated about the Chadian head of state's ambitions for a pan-regional zone of influence, often pejoratively known as Greater Zagawaland.
Assuming that at least some of Sudan's leadership suspect this of their former protégé, it is little surprise that they regard Darfur insurgent groups as a direct threat.
Oil issue
Chad's eastern border now presents not only a military threat, but a financial one too.
Here, Deby's recent dispute with the World Bank is critical. As the key international brokers for Doba, bank staff were horrified in 2005 by Chad's decision to shift millions of dollars from a fund set up to tackle long-term poverty to deal with more pressing financial difficulties.
The bank decided to hold back funds. N'Djamena is now near insolvent, making access to the global arms market difficult. But it is this kind of spending that the bank is determined to forestall.
Finally, rumours deepen about the 56- year-old leader's health. This is important, given his apparent wish to appoint his widely disliked son Brahim as successor.
Many other major Zagawa figures are against that, fearing marginalisation for their own relatives.
Presidential elections are due in May and many people doubt they will be free and fair. If Nour or anyone else feels prepared to take Deby on before the next rainy season, this is their practical deadline to move.
Linking all these factors is what now seems to be the simple recognition by virtually all major players in Chad that the Deby era is coming to an end as the country's post-colonial political vacuum once again opens up.
This time round, even more than when Deby supplanted Habre, the oil issue underlies the thinking of virtually all of them.
Beyond Doba itself, there are promising oil fields elsewhere in southern Chad. Just as important is the potential of major exploration backing from China, which would reduce any future leader's need to depend on the World Bank's say-so.
This leads back to what may prove to be the most interesting current questions about Nour: just whose direct numbers does he have on his satellite phone? And how often is he calling them?

Again and Again

2006-03-16T21:59:00.000+01:00

Chad's troops 'foil coup attempt'
BBC
Chadian troops have foiled an attempt to oust President Idriss Deby, Chad's communications minister has said.
Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said a plan to shoot down Mr Deby's plane on his return from abroad had been discovered.
Two senior army officers have been arrested and the coup bid blamed on the president's twin nephews and a general who defected to rebels in the east.
But a key rebel leader denies it was a coup attempt saying rebels had planned a "mass desertion" of soldiers.
A large number of army officers have deserted to join a coalition of rebel groups called the United Front for Democratic Change (FUCD), led by Mahamat Nour from bases in Darfur on Sudan's border with Chad.
Analyst Andrew Manley has told the BBC that in recent months President Deby has been looking increasingly vulnerable, faced with the growing rebellion in the east and a loss of support among neighbouring countries and traditional allies like France.
'Neutralised'
Mr Doumgor said forces marching towards the capital, N'Djamena, were intercepted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after the plan was discovered.
He said they fled on seven vehicles, two of which were "neutralised" and Col Eggrey Mahamat and Commander Ali Anour were arrested.
The masterminds of the plot - General Sedi Aguid and the Erdimi twins, all of whom have joined the eastern rebellion - were not amongst those arrested.
However, Yaya Dillo, part of the FUCD coalition, told the BBC's French service that it had been an operation to allow army officers to desert to rebel ranks.
Before the desertion of the president's nephew's last year, Tom Erdimi was in charge of the national oil project and Timane Erdimi headed the cotton industry.
Phones down
The BBC's Stephanie Hancock says there is a heavy presence of troops in the capital, which is calm.
Our correspondent says people have been at work as usual, but had been wondering about what was going on as the mobile phones have been down for more than 12 hours.
Landlines are still operational, she says.
President Deby was attending a two-day summit of the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (Cemac) in Equatorial Guinea, when he left hurriedly on Tuesday night after the first day's session.
The capital is calmer than it was in December after Chad declared a state of war with Sudan following a deadly attack launched from Darfur by Chadian rebels, our reporter says.
Sudan repeatedly denied allegations made by Chad that it was backing the rebels and sending Arab militias in support.
In February, Chad and Sudan signed an accord to resolve their differences over fighting along the border. Mr Deby seized power in 1990 after launching a rebellion from bases in Darfur.

One Hot Border

2006-03-01T10:05:00.000+01:00

February 28, 2006
Refugee Crisis Grows as Darfur War Crosses a Border
By LYDIA POLGREEN
ADRÉ, Chad — The chaos in Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan where more than 200,000 civilians have been killed, has spread across the border into Chad, deepening one of the world's worst refugee crises.
Arab gunmen from Darfur have pushed across the desert and entered Chad, stealing cattle, burning crops and killing anyone who resists. The lawlessness has driven at least 20,000 Chadians from their homes, making them refugees in their own country.
Hundreds of thousands more people in this area, along with 200,000 Sudanese who fled here for safety, find themselves caught up in a growing conflict between Chad and Sudan, which have a long history of violence and meddling in each other's affairs.
"You may have thought the terrible situation in Darfur couldn't get worse, but it has," Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said in a recent statement. "Sudan's policy of arming militias and letting them loose is spilling over the border, and civilians have no protection from their attacks, in Darfur or in Chad."
Indeed, the accounts of civilians in eastern Chad are agonizingly familiar to those in western Sudan. One woman, Zahara Isaac Mahamat, described how Arab men on camels and horses had raided her village in Chad, stealing everything they could find and slaughtering all who resisted.
The dead included her husband, Ismail Ibrahim, who tried to prevent the raiders from burning his sorghum and millet fields. Like so many others in this desolate expanse of dust-choked earth, she fled west with her three children, much as people in Darfur have been forced to do in recent years.
"I have lost everything but my children," she said, her face looking much older than her 20 years. She is now a refugee, with thousands of other displaced Chadians, in Kolloye, a village south of here.
"We have three bowls of grain left," she said. "When that is gone, only God can help us."
The spreading chaos is a result of two closely connected conflicts in the neighboring countries.
In Darfur, rebels have been battling government forces and the janjaweed, Arab militias aligned with the government, in a campaign of terror that the Bush administration has called genocide.
The United Nations Security Council has agreed to send troops to protect civilians, but they will take months to arrive. In the meantime, President Bush has said, NATO should help shore up a failing African Union peacekeeping mission there, but a surge of violence has chased tens of thousands of people from their homes in recent weeks.
In Chad, the government is fighting its own war against rebels based in Sudan and bent on ousting Chad's ailing president, Idriss Déby.
The rebels include disgruntled soldiers who defected and tribes tired of being ruled by members of the president's tribe, the Zaghawa, who represent just a small percentage of the population but have long dominated politics and the military.
In a sign of how inseparable the two conflicts have become, President Déby has accused Sudan of supporting the rebellion against his government, and Sudan has long suspected members of Mr. Déby's family of supporting Zaghawa-led rebels in Darfur.
Both sides agreed at a summit meeting in Libya in early February to stop supporting rebels on each other's territory and to tone down the belligerent talk. But Chadian rebels have remained on the Sudanese side of the border, and it is not clear whether Mr. Déby has the capacity to stop members of his clan from supporting Darfur rebels.
If unchecked by international intervention, this complex and volatile mix of government forces, allied militias and at least a half-dozen rebel groups in a remote region awash with weapons will almost inevitably lead to disaster, said John Prendergast, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, and an expert on the Darfur conflict.
"The principle strategy of all these actors, both state actors and proxy militias, is to displace people in order to destabilize and undermine the support base of your opponent," he said. "We are going to see an increasing spiral of displacement on both sides of the border and an increasingly dangerous environment for humanitarian workers."
In Chad, the trouble began in December when rebel groups attacked Adré and two other strategic border towns. The Chadian Army repelled the rebels, but it withdrew its troops from garrisons along the border to fortify Adré.
The withdrawal has left a security vacuum into which the janjaweed have rushed. The once well-traveled road between Adré, a bustling border town, and Kolloye has become a terrifying gantlet roamed by bandits and Arab militias. Dozens of villages have emptied; some have been burned. The few aid agencies working in this lawless region avoid the road, using a circuitous route farther west to reach Abéché, the regional capital.
In six days of traveling along the frontier, a reporter and photographer for The New York Times saw just four policemen to keep the peace, equipped only with horses and armed with battered AK-47's. Outside of Adré, only one military patrol was visible.
What appeared to be another military patrol just south of Adré, four soldiers commanded by an aging officer with thick glasses and rheumy eyes, was in fact a search party for the missing cattle of the commanding officer, Adoum Allatchi Gaga. His cows had been stolen by raiders across the border. Asked about the security situation in the region, Mr. Gaga said: "I don't have any idea. I am just looking for my cows."
At the hospital in Adré, the number of gunshot victims in December and January almost doubled, to about 100 a month, relief officials said, a grim sign of the growing lawlessness.
In one ward lay Fatime Youma, a 13-year-old girl with a tube draining the gunshot wound that had punctured her lung.
She was shot, her father explained, by janjaweed who happened upon her and her 16-year-old sister, Zenab, who lay in the next room with a gunshot wound to her arm.
"I was just looking for firewood with my sister," Zenab said softly. "When the raiders saw us we ran away but they shot at us."
Adré's police chief, Mahamat Lony, said he was short of both officers and weapons.
"We have a very catastrophic situation," he said. "We have a very long frontier with Sudan, and many heavily armed raiders on the other side. There have been many incursions, and they attack the population. We have many displaced, and no one is helping them."
The man charged with defending Chad's border and protecting refugees and civilians is Gen. Abakar Youssouf Mahamat Itno, 38, a nephew of President Déby who was dispatched here the day of the rebel attack.
"Sudan wants to export the war in Darfur to us here," General Itno said at his camp in the hills above Adré. "They want to use the janjaweed they armed to terrorize Darfur, to terrorize our population. We will not allow it."
Even so, he acknowledged his inability to patrol the border areas. "It is a long border," he said. "We cannot be everywhere at once."
That Chadian rebels have found sanctuary in Sudan is beyond doubt. Geneina, the capital of Western Darfur, resembles a garrison town; armed men from at least six forces are visible on the streets, as are Arabs in street clothes carrying AK-47's. Local residents identify them as janjaweed.
In the market in the evening, Chadian Army deserters wearing their distinctive turbans sit drinking tea, submachine guns beside them. Freshly dug machine-gun pits surround the police and army stations, and aid agencies are putting sandbags around their offices. The Chadian rebels have new weapons, uniforms and vehicles, aid officials in Geneina said, leading many to conclude that they are getting support from the Sudanese government.
With so much firepower on the Sudanese side of the border, residents in villages like Adé, south of Adré, have borne almost daily attacks.
"There is no security here," said Hisseine Kassar Mostapha, secretary general of the local government in Adé. "We are out here completely on our own, with no one to protect us."
The lack of security means little assistance from international aid groups. In Kolloye, 10,000 Chadians, refugees like Ms. Mahamat, live in roofless grass shelters that give little protection from the frigid night air and no shelter from the punishing desert sun. Water is scarce and food supplies are low, villagers said. The only assistance is a mobile clinic run by Doctors Without Borders that operates three times a week.
One refugee, Kaltam Abdullah, cradled her year-old son in her lap; his head lolled on his neck, his eyes were glazed and his limbs slender.
"He has had running stomach for 10 days," Ms. Abdullah said. "He is coughing. But there is no doctor."
Meanwhile, Sudanese refugees continue to arrive in Chad. Last month there were 1,500 arrivals, up from 1,000 over the previous three months, said Claire Bourgeois, the deputy representative for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Abéché. She said all the camps were full except one, and that it was filling up quickly.
Several camps holding tens of thousands of refugees will be moved further west, Ms. Bourgeois said, to protect the refugees from the violence. But safety remains a serious problem, she added, and "if there is no security, the humanitarian actors will leave."
Sudanese refugees who have arrived in recent weeks recount grim tales of slaughter, rape and plunder.
Ibrahim Suleiman Mahamat, a herder from the Masalit tribe who lived along the border, said janjaweed had stolen his livestock: 40 cows, 20 goats and sheep, 2 camels and 2 horses. Penniless and terrified, he had little choice but to cross into Chad with his two wives and six children. Dozens of relatives left behind plan to join him, he said. Even in the relative safety of the Gaga Refugee Camp, far west of the border, he said, he does not feel safe.
"We are in a very dangerous situation," Mr. Mahamat said. "What happens if there is a war in the country you are from and the country you have fled to? We are nowhere. There is nowhere for us to go."
Michael Kamber contributed reporting from Geneina, Sudan, for this article.

How does one recover from that which we call CHAD?

2006-02-17T23:06:00.000+01:00

I have recently been inspired by a fellow aid worker's approach to life after Chad and decided to provide you all with an update - that is if you any of you are actually still reading. Frankly, I was unable to be upfront when writing from Chad and I'm afraid many compelling stories never made it out.

I suppose I should begin with the ending. My final days in Iriba were more trying and anxiety filled than any I had ever known. From local authorities running off to join the rebels across the border in Sudan, to attacks in nearby towns, to local youth threatening our lives for the staff we chose to hire...the list goes on. My last night in Iriba was spent on the satellite phone, trying to explain to my mom exactly what was going on - that foolish need to connect from my isolation with somebody from the outside world. The next morning I was dramatically finding my way onto a UN flight and onto Abeche were I waited out the opportuntity to get on a flight to N'djamena and ultimately out of the country. All as we sat on our hands, wondering if we were about to be witness to yet another collapse.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I boarded that huge Air France plane from N'djamena to Paris where I was reunited with my mother. I enjoyed a week of Parisian distration before going on to Germany to visit some of my friends from the Uganda days.

I arrived back in the States in early January to find myself a bit lost. Chad pushed me to a limit I had never reached before. As politically incorrect or culturally insensitive as it may sound, I simply found Eastern Chad intolerable, unlike the Africa I had previously known and loved. I still think so many stories will come of this, so as I continue to unwind, who knows what will come out!

And now? I am in London, consumming mass quantities of milk and finding solace wandering the streets of such a dynamic city. After running around for the past few years, I am attempting some semblence of "normal" Western life. It has its appeal, but also rather scares me. I've already been scoping out work in other corners of the world, but constantly reminding myself to take a deep breath and let what happens happen.

Oldest tricks

2006-02-01T17:27:00.000+01:00

That sneaky Chadian government is using some of the oldest tactics in the book, ensuring that current President Deby and his entrourage of cronies remain at the helm. How long before this facade of a country collapses?

CHAD: Parliament votes to prolong its mandate
NDJAMENA, 31 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Chad's parliamentarians have voted to extend their own terms in office by over a year, saying the cash-strapped country cannot hold legislative elections along with the presidential poll later this year as scheduled.But opposition politicians say the law – introduced by President Idriss Deby’s cabinet – is a deliberate move by Deby to keep close allies in the government in troubled times. Of Chad’s 155-member parliament – heavily dominated by Deby's party – 131 took part in Monday’s vote, approving the extension by 129 votes to 0 with two abstentions, according to Abderamane Djasnabaille, minister of parliamentary affairs and human rights.Legislative elections, normally held every four years, were to take place in 2006 along with a presidential poll. The law, if ratified by the president, would postpone parliamentary elections until 2007.“We cannot organise presidential, legislative and local elections all in 2006,” Djasnabaille told IRIN.“Given the current context we do not have the money to organise all [the polls] at the same time so we prefer to extend the mandate of parliament,” he said, pointing to Chad’s recent falling out with the World Bank, which has halted all loans to the country and frozen an oil escrow account over Chad’s management of its petrodollars.But opponents of the extension are crying foul. Michel Barka, head of Chad’s largest labour union and a member of a civil society group monitoring the country’s oil expenditures, said Deby - who faces fiscal pressures, an increasingly vocal opposition, army defections and labour strikes - wants to maintain a sympathetic parliament.Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) party holds a vast majority in parliament, with 110 of 155 members and a number of others allied with MPS.“One must recall that this is the national assembly that voted to modify the constitution [to allow Deby to run for a third term] and changed the oil revenue law,” Barka said, adding that few were surprised by Monday’s vote. “In reality the president wants to keep these members so they can help him in these difficult times.”Parliament passed a law in December allowing the government to tap into oil revenues that were to be set aside for future generations or devoted to special poverty reduction projects.Barka added that the government’s claim of lack of funds for elections doesn’t stand up.“These elections have been planned for this year for a long time and it’s only now that the government realises it does not have the money.”Opposition parliamentarian Ngarlejy Yorongar, along with a number of other opposition members, boycotted Monday’s vote. Yorongar told IRIN, “We did not want to be party to this grand deception.”

And the insecurity continues...

2006-01-31T07:13:00.000+01:00

This is a few days old, but exactly where I was living and working. Perhaps a hint as to just how difficult the circumstances are in this part of Chad.

UNHCR Reduces its Presence in Guereda and Iriba, Eastern Chad United Nations High Commission for Refugees (Geneva) PRESS RELEASEJanuary 23, 2006 Posted to the web January 23, 2006 Abeche
The UN refugee agency said Sunday it is reducing staff in two of its five regional offices in eastern Chad, as a security precaution. This temporary measure follows an attack by an unknown group of armed men on the town of Guereda and the abduction of five government officials on Friday.
"This measure is temporary," said Claire Bourgeois, UNHCR deputy representative in Chad. ''We have kept enough staff in field offices to continue delivering services to the refugees living around Guereda and Iriba.''
Some 200,000 refugees from Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region are living in 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad.
Explaining the temporary relocation of staff, Bourgeois noted that "the situation is serious enough at this stage, especially when taking into account the number of security incidents in the past days. For example, in addition to the kidnapping of five Chadian officials, two NGO vehicles were reported stolen in the past four days and other partners have also been victims of robbery."
Non-governmental organisations working in Guereda and Iriba have followed the United Nations decision to reduce its staff on a temporary basis. Some 90 humanitarian workers and family members from Guereda and about 80 from Iriba are being relocated to Abeche. In total, humanitarian staff in the region has been reduced by 20 per cent.
UNHCR, UN agencies and NGOs will re-evaluate the situation on a daily basis. In the meantime, the situation is quiet in the refugee camps and no incidents have been reported.

Truth be told

2006-01-20T01:19:00.000+01:00

This post is over due and yet somehow it is not so easy to write. The bottomline? I left Chad. It is a bit of a story and not one I am yet ready to divulge in its entirety. However, I do intend to keep posting what I can to keep those interested up to date on the state of Chadian affairs. I am hiding out in my homeland for the moment, but have little doubt that Africa will be in my life again. Well, it never really leaves afterall. But perhaps I will indulge in just a bit of Western extravagence for awhile. Come on, I had an open hole for a toilet and ate $4 canned peas!

Protests

2006-01-18T00:00:00.000+01:00

CHAD: Civil servants begin second week of general strikeNDJAMENA, 16 January (IRIN) - State school students and retired civil servants demanding public funds held angry protests in the Chadian capital, N'djamena, on Monday, as government workers moved into the second week of a general strike."We have warned the government we would strike for months, but we have had no response," Michel Barka, president of Chad's largest labour union coalition (UST), told IRIN from N'djamena.Top among civil servants' demands are: at least four months in unpaid salaries, the payment of government pensions and a five percent raise that UST says Chad's President Idriss Deby promised in 2004.Some state school students whose teachers are on strike poured onto the campus of a private school in N'djamena, shouting and throwing stones to support their teachers and to denounce disadvantages in the strike-prone state education system, sources in N'djamena said. Also on Monday, at least 100 government workers demonstrated near the presidential palace, blocking a main road with bricks and large rocks. Retirees carried banners that read "Congratulations to the president and the prime minister - In 2005 not a single pension was paid" and "From 1990 to 2005, 36 billion francs (US $66.5 million) embezzled".Government officials could not be reached for comment on the strike.The stoppage comes as Chad faces lingering fiscal problems, compounded by security threats from a rebel movement in the east of the country.Labour union official Barka said that the strike has been widely observed in a country where the failure to pay government workers is common. The UN ranks the vast arid nation as the world's fifth poorest country. The union was keeping some medical workers in place to provide "a minimum of services," Barka said. But one city resident, who gave his name only as Mohamed, expressed concern about a relative due to have been operated on four days ago. "We fear the worst," he said, standing at the gates of a government hospital.The current strike comes on the heels of a government decision to renege on international accords by tapping into oil revenues set aside for future generations and funnelling 'poverty reduction' revenues to state security and other sectors. The government says it needs funds now to tackle the fiscal crisis and instability.But Barka, who serves on a civil society panel overseeing the use of oil money, said Chad's problem is not a lack of funds but corruption and bad governance."Already the situation is very difficult, especially for government workers," Barka told IRIN. Once the government has more leeway in how it spends oil money, "the situation will be far worse."For now Chad's petrodollars are frozen in a London bank after the World Bank suspended loans to the country last week following Ndjamena's decision to revise its oil revenue management law in defiance of warnings from the lender.

Timeout punishment for Chad

2006-01-08T18:52:00.000+01:00

Chad urges World Bank to reverse loan suspension
Sat 7 Jan 2006 8:30 AM ET
By Dany DanzoumbeN'DJAMENA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Chad said on Saturday it was shocked that the World Bank had suspended all of its loans in a row over how the central African country spends oil revenues and called on the global lender to reverse its decision.World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told Reuters on Friday the bank was taking the step because Chad had breached a 1999 agreement by altering an oil revenue law meant to safeguard funds to fight poverty in the long term."The bank's decision, which current consultations in no way predicted, comes at an odd and difficult time for Chad and surprises us by its brutality," Chad's Economy Minister, Mahamat Ali Hassan, said in a statement."The government wishes the bank to reconsider its position and look again at this decision, which by its nature undermines the credibility of its action in Chad and blackens its reputation," he said.But he added the government remained open to dialogue and was ready to take measures to resolve the argument, without giving any further details.Chad's oil revenue law, agreed with the World Bank, had been touted as a test case in Africa to show petro-dollars can help the poor, with 10 percent of oil revenues meant to be saved in a special overseas fund for future generations.Chad's parliament approved legislation on Dec. 29 to access more of the profits from a 1,000 km (620 mile) pipeline, funded by the World Bank, which carries oil to Cameroon for export, in breach of the original agreement.TOUGH MOVEWolfowitz's decision to halt the loans, including $124 million in undisbursed funds, came after a two-hour telephone call with President Idriss Deby and is one of the most drastic steps the World Bank can take against a member country.Africa's newest oil producer has said it needs more flexibility in the way it manages its revenues to fight immediate poverty and insists that the changes to the law do not go against the spirit of its agreement with the bank."The modification ... was fully explained by the government which has always said it is ready to give a full explanation of the reasons which led to the change," Ali Hassan said.Wolfowitz said on Friday the bank had been trying for some time to open discussions with the Chadian government but said "regrettably instead of engaging in dialogue, they have proceeded unilaterally."Ali Hassan said aid had been suspended which was being used not only to fund the oil sector but also agriculture, education, health and transport projects.The row comes at a difficult time for Deby, who faces threats from rebel attacks on Chad's eastern frontier with Sudan and from army desertions at home.The former French colony said last month a "state of belligerence" existed between itself and Sudan and has accused Khartoum of backing Chadian rebels, a charge Khartoum denies.Last week several Chadian rebel groups opposing Deby -- a 53-year old former army commander who himself led a revolt from the east to seize power in 1990 -- announced the formation of a political and military alliance to try to oust him.

UN scales back Darfur presence as Sudan-Chad border tension rises

2006-01-06T18:53:00.000+01:00

Friday January 6, 7:04 AM
UN scales back Darfur presence as Sudan-Chad border tension rises
The United Nations said it has scaled back its presence in parts of Sudan's restive Darfur region bordering Chad because of escalating tension fueled by a troop buildup along the frontier.
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) decided to reduce its presence and restrict UN access in parts of west Darfur "due to the increasing instability in the affected areas," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Dujarric cited specifically "a buildup of forces on either side of the Sudan-Chad border with increased potential for armed conflict."
But he told reporters here that the move by the 5,783-strong UNMIS did not signal an overall evacuation from the area.
"Essential life-saving humanitarian services delivered by the UN will continue," he said.
"The mission will monitor the situation and carry out a fresh security assessment of the affected areas in the next two to three weeks," Dujarric added.
UNMIS chief spokesman George Somerwill meanwhile told AFP from Khartoum that about 100 personnel were in the affected areas before the staff cut took effect over the last two to three months. But he would not say how many people had been withdrawn.
"It's not a big reduction," he said, adding that those left behind were humanitarian workers tasked only with responding "to the life-threatening needs of people in the area."
"There is a heavy buildup of troops on both sides of the border. It has been quite bad in the last three weeks," Somerwill noted. "I think there is some cause for concern."
Dujarric said the escalating tension along the Sudan-Chad border would be discussed when Chad Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-mi attends a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan next week in New York.
The Chadian government declared a "state of war" with Sudan last month following a rebel attack on the border town of Adre, and has called for the African Union and international community to head off further escalation of the conflict.
Chadian President Idriss Deby has repeatedly accused the Khartoum regime of supporting Chadian rebels in eastern Chad, on the border with Darfur, which has been in the throes of a civil war for three years.
Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently on the Chad side of the border, which houses more than 200,000 refugees who fled Darfur.
On Wednesday, Deby accused Sudan of "exporting" the Darfur crisis to his country, as Central African leaders met at a crisis summit in Ndjamena over the escalating tensions.
"The Khartoum regime is secretively going ahead with the recruitment of mercenaries and other elements to put into action its Machiavellian plan -- the destabilization of Chad," Deby said in opening remarks to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) mini-summit.
Presidents and senior officials of the six CEMAC member states -- Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon -- gave qualified support to Chad in the dispute, and condemned any attempt to destabilize the country.
The CEMAC leaders also hailed "the efforts of Chad in the search for peace" in Darfur.
The Darfur conflict, which has claimed as many as 300,000 lives and left more than two million displaced, broke out in early 2003 when rebel groups began fighting what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region's black African tribes by the Arab-led regime in Khartoum.
UN chief Kofi Annan has repeatedly urged the Khartoum government and Darfur rebels to reach a political settlement in the Abuja peace talks in Nigeria. But the talks have made little progress so far.

Chad update

2006-01-05T00:13:00.000+01:00

CHAD: President Deby seeks regional support amid tensions with Sudan

NDJAMENA, 4 January (IRIN) - Chadian President Idriss Deby stepped up a diplomatic offensive on Wednesday, calling on fellow African leaders to support Chad against what he called the "subversive plots" of neighbouring Sudan.The Chadian leader made the remarks at a special summit of the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in the capital, N'djamena, which he convened amid mounting tensions with Sudan, which Deby accuses of deliberately trying to destabilise Chad."I hope that countries [in the region] will be on our side to fully inform the international community of the gravity of Sudan's subversive plots against Chad," Deby said at the opening of the summit.Deby said Sudan's ravaged Darfur region, since 2003 gripped by violent conflict between rebels on the one side and the Sudanese government and allied militias on the other, should be placed under UN mandate.The Chad government, reeling from a wave of army desertions since October, declared a "state of belligerence" with Sudan after a rebel attack on 18 December in the eastern border town of Adre. Chad blamed the attack on Sudan, saying it is financing, arming and equipping Chadian rebels.Sudan and Chad have long accused one another of backing rebel factions.CEMAC's secretary general, Jean Nkuete, said at the opening session on Wednesday, "This meeting comes as the question of insecurity in the region is more worrying than ever."A traditional leader in Adre told IRIN days after the December attack that Chad could soon face the same violence that has engulfed Darfur and forced about 200,000 Sudanese to flee to Chad."We could see here the same situation as that in Darfur," said a local official who did not give his name. "The rebels who attacked on 18 December were backed by the janjawid [militia linked to the Sudanese government]."With huge military reinforcements calm has returned to Adre, but other villages in the area have seen incursions in recent weeks that have forced some residents from their homes, local officials told IRIN. Meanwhile, unrest continues to ripple across Chad's armed forces. In October a group of deserters fled to eastern Chad and formed a new group called the platform for change, national unity and democracy, known by its French acronym, SCUD.Yet another group, the Rally for Democracy and Liberty, is said to have mounted the Adre attack. On 30 December a number of rebel factions - all insisting that Deby step down - announced that they were joining forces. This is a worrying development, says a humanitarian official in Chad. "They are trying to form a unified front. There is strength in numbers. This makes the rebel threat stronger and more real," the official told IRIN on Wednesday. "It is a volatile situation."Attending the N'djamena summit were presidents Francois Bozize of Central African Republic (CAR), Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazaville and Omar Bongo of Gabon, as well as Prime Minister Miguel Abia Biteo Boriko of Equatorial Guinea. As of Wednesday afternoon no Cameroon representative had arrived in N'djamena. Also present was Lamine Cisse, special representative of the UN secretary general to CAR.The CEMAC meeting was cited as one of the reasons Libya called off a special mini-summit on the Darfur conflict scheduled for the same day. The N'djamena meeting comes three weeks before the next summit of the African Union, set to take place in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Deby has called for a change in venue as a protest against Sudan, but Libya's AU minister Ali Triki told Radio France Internationale on Wednesday that it is likely too late to transfer the summit.

Take from the poor, give to the guns

2006-01-04T21:50:00.000+01:00

Finance: Chad Dilutes Oil-for-Development Pledge Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

NEWSJanuary 2, 2006 Posted to the web January 3, 2006
By Emad MekayWashington

Tension is rising between the World Bank and the African nation of Chad, one of the world's poorest countries, over the latter's decision to seize funds from a controversial Bank-funded oil pipeline and not spend the money on social sectors.

Last week, the Chadian National Assembly, the country's legislature, passed amendments to the so-called Petroleum Revenue Management Law (PRML), a legal agreement governing its oil wealth written with the Bank in exchange for investment funds.

The changes now allow the government in the capital N'Djamena to more fully control oil revenues from the high-profile Chad-Cameroon pipeline, and take greater profits to meet increasing budgetary demands.

But the World Bank, whose support was crucial for the start of the project in 2000, and a number of watchdog groups say that the changes will almost certainly weaken the poverty reduction agenda mutually agreed to as a condition of lending.

The original law was the centrepiece and main governance "safeguard" of the World Bank-supported pipeline, designed to guarantee that oil revenues benefit the poor by allocating most of the revenues to "priority sectors" like health, education, social services and rural development.

The law also required that 10 percent of proceeds from oil sales be set aside in the Future Generations Fund (FGF), an escrow account for the post-oil era.

The new changes, however, include an increase from 15 percent to 30 percent of revenues deposited into general government coffers. They also cancel the fund that saves money from the project for future generations and use the money accumulated for immediate expenditures, as well as to redefine "priority sector" expenditures to include spending on security.

The case is particularly important to the Bank because it has marketed its participation in the project as a model for its work to fight global poverty.

The Bank's decision came despite loud protests from non-governmental organisations and anti-poverty campaigners who said oil projects tend to lead to corruption and mismanagement.

The controversial four-billion-dollar oil facilities, which include a 1,000-kilometre pipeline designed to carry oil from Chad to the Atlantic coast of neighbouring Cameroon, were predicted to fatten state coffers by at least two billion dollars over the next 25 years, or 80 million dollars per year.

The pipeline transfers 225,000 barrels of oil a day. It is a joint venture between the U.S. oil giants ExxonMobil (which holds 40 percent of the private equity) and Chevron (25 percent), and Malaysia's state oil company Petronas (35 percent).

The World Bank was quick to condemn the recent move, which still awaits ratification by Chad's President Idriss Deby. The Washington-based public lender says it is in consultations with a number of parties over the appropriate reaction.

"If these amendments become law, it will harm the well-being of Chad's poorest and most vulnerable citizens and represent a material breach of the original agreement," said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. "I am consulting with other partners and our shareholders on the appropriate next steps."

Among the options that the Bank can invoke in retaliation is the possible suspension of new credits or grants to Chad; a halt in disbursement of funds under some or all ongoing agreements; and an accelerated repayment of loans extended to the government of Chad.

The Bank says it understands the difficult financial circumstances the government is going through. It has offered to assist with the country's fiscal policy.

But Chad accused the World Bank of acting like a coloniser and of failing to take note of the increasing pressures on its budget.

The country now faces rising security costs in protecting its eastern borders with the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan, where thousands of refugees are fleeing militia violence.
Last week, Chad said it was in a "state of belligerence" with Sudan and accused Khartoum of giving aid to Chadian rebels.

The country has a population of nearly nine million, with 80 percent living below the poverty line of less than two dollars a day. According to the World Bank, most of Chad is desert or semi-arid land, with a harsh physical environment and a very narrow economic base.

The latest spat between the Bank and Chad vindicates earlier warnings from civil society groups that the massive pipeline project could actually lead to a worsening of socioeconomic conditions in the Central African country, while strengthening its corrupt ruling oligarchy.

The Chadian government ranks among the most corrupt and most abusive of human rights in the world. The government used the first 4.5 million dollars of the signing bonus that it received from the oil companies to buy arms to fight its northern rebels.

Critics have said the World Bank's record of favouring corporations, along with the continued corruption and lack of capacity in the Chadian government, cast doubt on the effectiveness of any mechanism to help govern the country's oil wealth.

2006-01-04T18:19:00.000+01:00

Undercover picture operation: N'djamena market

More on the Adre attack

2005-12-19T15:18:00.000+01:00

Chad blames Sudan after rebel raid, invokes right of pursuit
Chad blamed its neighbour Sudan for a rebel raid on an eastern garrison and announced it was exercising its right to pursue the attackers on Sudanese soil.
"The (Chadian) government holds the Sudanese government wholly responsible for this morning's attack, mounted from its territory," said a spokesman in a statement released in Ndjamena.
Chadian "government forces are now using their right of pursuit to ward off any further threat" against the border town of Adre, added Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor.
It was unclear Sunday afternoon who controlled Adre.
The spokesman said the early morning attack on Adre's garrison was mounted by army deserters allied with a recently formed rebel group called the Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL), which Chad accuses of being a "militia used by the Sudanese government."
He said about 100 of the attackers were killed, a toll that could not be independently confirmed.
About 30 people were injured in the fighting and a helicopter accident, according to the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which runs a surgical unit in the hospital.
Two rockets, apparently launched as a result of the helicopter accident, fell on the hospital, injuring people both inside and outside the facility, according to an MSF spokesman in Paris.
The Chadian government statement said the attackers had been "surprised by our forces who had been expecting them for several days and dealt them a bruising defeat," the spokesman said.
Late Sunday a Chadian military officer said another 80 rebels were killed in a second assault on the town in the afternoon. "We repulsed them into Sudan," he said, requesting anonymity. He said two Chadian soldiers were also killed.
Contacted by satellite phone, senior RDL official Abdoulaye Abdelkerim claimed his men had taken control of Adre. The same claim had been made Saturday night only to be contradicted by several sources.
A diplomat in the capital said the army still held Adre. "There was an attempt to take it over but it failed," the envoy said.
But an aid worker, citing colleagues in Adre, said the town had fallen.
Recent weeks have seen a volley of accusations between Ndjamana and Khartoum, with Chad charging that Sudan has been happy to host its rebels and a growing wave of army deserters in order to destabilize Chad.
Sudan has said Chad had already deployed planes and troops on its territory before the latest incident, allegations denied by Ndjamena.
Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently in eastern Chad, which plays host to some 200,000 refugees from the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region

Chadian Rebels Kill 100; Chad Blames Sudan
By LYDIA POLGREEN
DAKAR, Senegal Dec. 18 - At least 100 people were killed in an attack by a rebel group on a town in Chad near its border with Sudan, Chadian officials said, the latest violence to erupt on the long, porous border between the two troubled nations.
A rebel group made up largely of deserters from Chad's army attacked the town of Adré early Sunday morning, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, Chad's minister of information, told Reuters.
He blamed the Sudanese government, saying it backed the rebel group, known as the Rally for Democracy and Liberty. The group is demanding that President Idriss Déby of Chad step down.
The attack comes as Chad struggles with a tide of financial, security and political woes. Mr. Déby seized power in 1990, ending a bloody civil war that had tortured the country on and off since its independence in 1960. While Mr. Déby is credited with bringing stability and, under pressure, multiparty democracy to Chad, divisions within the country's powerful military and the ruling Zaghawa tribe have undermined his authority.
Between 600 and 800 soldiers have defected to create a new rebel group in the eastern part of the country. Mr. Déby dissolved his Presidential Guard earlier this fall and replaced it with a new security force, a move widely seen as indicative of his mistrust of elements of the military.
A vast, landlocked nation roughly three times the size of California, Chad has struggled to absorb hundreds of thousands of refugees who flooded across its border with the Darfur region of Sudan, where ethnic warfare rages. At least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and millions have been forced from their villages.
The conflict in Darfur, in which several rebel groups, including one led by the Zaghawa tribe, are fighting the Sudanese government and the Arab janjaweed militias allied with it, has threatened to engulf Chad as conflicts have erupted along the border between the two nations.
With less than 3 percent of its land arable and little industry, Chad is desperately poor. The government had agreed to spend most of its profits from oil, discovered there in 1973, on poverty reduction. But in October, just as the revenues began to flow, the government changed its mind.

Attack on Adre

2005-12-19T10:22:00.000+01:00

Chad reports 100 killed in attack near Sudan border
N'DJAMENA, Chad (Reuters) -- Chadian troops repulsed an attack on a town near the Sudanese border on Sunday in fighting that killed around 100 people, Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said.
"There was an attack this morning in the town of Adre," Doumgor told Reuters. "The army counter-attacked ... there were around 100 killed," he said, adding losses on the rebel side had been worse than on the government side in what aid workers say is the worst offensive to date of a growing conflict.
The death toll could not immediately be verified.
Earlier Sudanese rebels and aid workers reported hearing large explosions and heavy fighting near Adre, a small town a few miles from the border.
"This began last night and until now we can still hear very loud explosions and heavy arms being used from the area of Adre town," said Hassan Khamis, a commander in Sudan's Darfur rebel National Movement for Reform and Development, whose areas of control run along the border.
"We can hear loud explosions from here," said one aid worker in the main West Darfur town of el-Geneina who declined to be named for security reasons.
Scores of Chadian soldiers deserted their barracks in late September before regrouping near the border, and the government has accused Sudan of using the deserters to fight rebels in Darfur and of backing Chadian rebel activities.
Sudanese army sources reported sporadic fighting in recent days, crossing over the long, porous border between the countries, but added the Sudanese army was not involved.
Both Darfuri rebels and aid workers in the region have reported large troop movements during the past two weeks near the border, with reports of Chadian troops patrolling on the Sudanese side of the border.
Chad has said it was prepared to send troops into Darfur to pursue the deserters, who pose a threat to President Idriss Deby by demanding his resignation. They are also accused of attacks on army bases in the capital N'Djamena.
The clashes add to tensions in Darfur, which has been in open revolt for almost three years. One of the main Darfur rebel tribes, the Zaghawa, live on both sides of the border.

Another Civil War for Chad?

2005-12-19T10:07:00.000+01:00

Greetings all. I haven't quite had the energy to give my commentary these past few weeks. There has been a dramatic escalation in the security situation, as a number of people have defected from the army and government (and from the President's own tribe) to join the rebels (who we understand are organizing themselves just across the border in Darfur, Sudan). There have been a number of attacks in Eastern Chad over the past weeks and the government is visibly concerned, transporting huge loads of munitions and weapons to fortify the East. Information is incredibly hard to come by, which I suppose is not so surprising in a country with no real press. I've seen children selling pieces of paper in the streets of N'djamena that are supposedly the "newspapers". But anybody reporting truth would surely be jailed or killed.

In Iriba, there are no authorities remaining. They've all run off to join the rebels. The rebels are composed largely of Zaghawa, who are from Iriba, Guereda and other areas in Eastern Chad. Yesterday they attacked the town of Adre on the border, which is historically significant, as every successful rebel movement has always taken Adre first (including the current president). The rebels were pushed back by the government troops and with a high death toll. There is little doubt that these attacks will continue.

It's been interesting to talk to different people in N'djamena, from different regions, to get their perspectives. The bottom line? People are scared. Civil war is scary. Chadians know because they have lived through one to many. Most say it is best if Deby just stays in power. They say his pockets are already full. If somebody new comes to power, his pockets will be empty, so he will have to kill to fill up those pockets.

There's a lot more to the story to come...

Training

2005-12-17T09:00:00.000+01:00

This is a group of gendarmes that I trained on gender-based violence. Look at how diligent they are with their studies! Contrary to my expectations, the training went very well and everybody seemed genuinely interested in what we were trying to convey about their role in preventing GBV and responding to young women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence, dometic abuse, and other forms of gender-based violence.

Visuals

2005-12-17T08:39:00.000+01:00

Pumping gas, N'djamena style! Yes, the clunker that I've been stuck roaming around the capital is quite the gas sucker, thus we ran out of gas in the middle of the city. Good thing for dude on the corner with the water bottle full of gas!

Little tidbit

2005-12-14T10:17:00.000+01:00

Remember the annoying Prefect who demanded I be his secretary? Well, he is among the many who defected to join the rebels last week.

President Deby on unstable territory

2005-12-14T10:07:00.000+01:00

Chad: Top Brass Defectors Protest Deby Rule
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWSDecember 12, 2005
Posted to the web December 12, 2005 Ndjamena

Chad President Idriss Deby marked 15 years at the helm of the vast arid nation this weekend amid reports of new defections by members of his inner circle as well as the military.
Army and government sources on Monday said key local government officials as well as several officers had deserted their posts at the weekend, swelling the ranks of rebel forces hiding out in the sandy eastern stretches of the oil-producing nation.
And in a written statement handed to the media, two of his nephews and ex senior aides, Tom and Timane Erdimi, who respectively held top jobs in the country's oil and cotton sectors, said they were joining those bent on evicting Deby from office.
"Today many Chadians are struggling in various ways and means against the Deby regime, we join them without regret," they said in the statement.
For the past two months a group of anti-Deby soldiers-turned-rebels has operated in the volatile region bordering Sudan's Western Darfur under the name of SCUD, which stands for "Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy".
Although Deby initially took power with Sudan's blessing, the almost three-year conflict in the troubled Darfur region has spilled across the border, with Khartoum and N'Djamena at times trading accusations of supporting each sides' enemies.
Deby, a member of the Zaghawa ethnic group, has come under attack from Chadian soldiers of the same group for not doing more to help their Sudanese kinsmen fight government forces and allied militia in Darfur.
Deby's kinsmen were behind a mutiny in May 2004.
But SCUD leader Yaya Dilo Djerou, who is also Zaghawa, says the dissident group's concerns are with broader government policy and that it has a far wider support base.
At a 15th anniversary speech this weekend in his hometown of Fada, more than 1,000 kilometres northeast of the capital N'Djamena, Deby did not dwell at length on the mutineers but did pledge to fight back.
"I will never allow these adventurers to undermine our democratic achievements," said the president, who seized power in 1990 before subsequently winning elections in 1996 and 2001.
An army officer turned president, Deby appears to be facing growing dissension within his armed forces.
In October he overhauled his presidential guard days after an undetermined number of soldiers deserted their posts in N'djamena and fled to the east. In November he reshuffled officers in top military posts.
He said last month that some of the SCUD deserters were involved in a plot to topple him in May 2004 but dismissed the group as being insignificant. "It's a short-lived venture - a minor group," Deby said.
SCUD leader Dilo Djerou has said the group numbers several hundred.
Implicitly reiterating charges that the Sudanese government was propping up the rebels, Deby in his weekend speech urged Khartoum "to abandon all action destabilising Chad."
In eastern Chad, local officials on Monday reported the defection of the prefect - government representative - and deputy prefect of Iriba and the deputy prefect of Goz Beida.
Last week, clashes between troops and rebels near Adre on the border with Sudan left a dozen soldiers dead and five injured, according to military sources. Rebels seized three army vehicles loaded with arms and destroyed two others.
Meanwhile military sources on Monday said several officers based at the northern Bardai barracks had deserted on Saturday.
In N'Djamena, the ministers of defence and public security met with the armed forces chief of staff but there was no confirmation available on reports that Goz Beida had fallen into the hands of the SCUD rebels.
In their statement the Ermini brothers, who were joined by the former head of the food security office Mahamat Abdelkerim Hanno and the former head of the National Administration and Magistrates School Abakar Tolli, called for a transition period leading to new elections after Deby's ejection.
Responding to their strong words against the Deby regime, accused of corruption and of impoverishing the country, Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor accused Tom Ermini on Monday of treason and of embezzling millions of dollars while carrying out his job coordinating Chad's oil programme from 2000 to 2004.
"He has run away because the noose is tightening both following his involvement in the 16 May 2004 attack against the head of state and because of the inquiry into his management of funds," Doumgor said.
Ermini immediately denied the accusations in a statement on the Internet.
"The only error I will admit to is having worked and staunchly supported Deby," he said.

That sneaky Chadian government...

2005-12-14T10:06:00.000+01:00

Chad Backs Out of Pledge to Use Oil Wealth to Reduce Poverty
By LYDIA POLGREEN
ACCRA, Ghana, Dec. 12 - When the World Bank said more than five years ago that it would help Chad build a $4.2 billion pipeline to export the oil discovered in the southern part of that landlocked, deeply impoverished nation, it seemed an opportunity to give the lie to the resource curse that is the painful experience of virtually every oil-rich African nation: that oil wealth typically creates more problems for poor countries than it solves.
In exchange for World Bank loans to build a 670-mile underground pipeline through Cameroon to export its oil, the Chadian government passed a law requiring that almost all of the money it earns on oil exports be spent for poverty reduction and that 10 percent be put aside as a "future generations fund," to leave something behind once the estimated one billion barrels of oil have been exhausted.
But in October, Chad's government abruptly announced at a meeting with the World Bank in N'Djamena, the capital, that it plans to alter that law and funnel more money into its general budget and increase spending on security.
Under the new proposal, the future generations fund would be scrapped and military spending would be added to the list of "priority sectors" that until now focused on spending in areas like agriculture, housing, health care and education.
"These are fundamental changes to the agreement Chad made on oil revenue management," said Ian Gary, an expert on oil at Oxfam America who has written several research reports critical of the Chad oil industry.
The changes, he said, make it far less likely the people of Chad will see any benefit from the billions of dollars Chad's oil fields are likely to pump into the economy, which in turn undermines the antipoverty rationale of the World Bank's role in the project.
The World Bank acknowledges that the Chadian government faces serious financial problems, and needs the money to pay salaries for civil servants and to deal with security threats, and has offered technical assistance to help bring spending under control.
"The adopted bill redefines the priority areas, abolishes the future generations fund, alters the way in which funds are allocated and extends the law to apply to new oilfields," Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, a government spokesman, told Reuters.
Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, released a statement expressing "serious concerns" about the changes.
"In the World Bank's view, these modifications alone will fail to provide a lasting solution to the recurring financial problems that Chad faces," the statement said. "To the contrary, they threaten to undermine the objectives of socioeconomic development, poverty reduction, accountability and transparency that guided World Bank Group and other international support for the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project."
World Bank officials have been in constant negotiations with the Chadian government over the proposed law, which is now before the legislature. Approval is largely a formality because the legislature is controlled by the party of Idriss Déby, who seized power after a civil war in 1990 and was elected president in 1996.
Under the current law, all payments made by ExxonMobil and its partners, which run the oil operation, go into an escrow account at Citibank in London, while taxes on oil profits and other indirect revenue go directly into the state treasury.
Of the money that goes to the escrow account, 10 percent is set aside for Chad's post-oil future, 72 percent goes to poverty reduction project and the remainder is split between the federal government and the local authorities where oil is extracted.
A committee that includes government officials and civil society representatives must approve projects paid for with money from direct oil sales. In addition to scrapping the future fund, the new law would double the percentage of money the federal government can spend without oversight to 30 percent.
The proposed changes have drawn angry reactions from civic groups in Chad, many of which were skeptical about the pipeline deal to begin with and warned the World Bank that the government would pull out once the oil money started flowing.
"It was at the very beginning clear that the government has adopted that law only to get the World Bank approved oil project," said Delphine Djiraibe of the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, one of the groups that fought the pipeline deal. "Now that everything is finished and money is coming in, the government is doing whatever they want regardless of the agreement they have signed with World Bank or commitments they have made to use oil money to fight poverty."
Chad, one of Africa's poorest countries, has a long history of instability and bloodshed. A vast, arid land about three times the size of California, it is home to 10 million people.
A majority of its citizens rely on subsistence agriculture and animal herding. It ranks 167 of 177 nations on the United Nations Development Index. Transparency International's 2005 survey of corruption around the world gave it the worst score, an ignominy it shares with Bangladesh.
Since gaining independence from France in 1960, it has been tormented by civil wars fueled by ethnic and religious tensions. Like Sudan, its restive neighbor to the east, its northern population is largely Muslim and has dominated the country's politics, while its southern half is largely Christian and animist.
Mr. Déby's rule has been a relatively stable period in the country's history, but the troubles in the Darfur region of Sudan, which borders eastern Chad, have spilled over into Chad along with 300,000 refugees. Internal divisions, along with reports of Mr. Déby's failing health, have led to much speculation that the government is on shaky ground.
"All of this is taking place against a backdrop of increasing fragility of the Déby regime," Mr. Gary said.
The push to spend more on security has occurred as the Chadian military has been afflicted by defections and low morale.
A group of soldiers who defected have started a rebel movement on the eastern edge of the country, and Mr. Déby overhauled the republican guard responsible for his safety in October. Last month, he also shuffled the military leadership.
Since it began exporting oil in 2003, Chad has taken in about $300 million, and under the petroleum revenue management law, two-thirds has gone to things like education, water systems, health care and basic infrastructure and transportation.
About $30 million has gone into the future generations fund, while 5 percent of the money has gone back to the oil-producing regions for development.

Justice for Darfur - well at least for the International Community

2005-12-14T10:03:00.000+01:00

Global criminal court seeks probe in Sudan's Darfur
By Evelyn LeopoldReutersTuesday, December 13, 2005; 5:12 AM
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the new International Criminal Court said he was investigating killings, mass rapes and other atrocities in lawless Darfur but had not been able to conduct inquiries in Sudan itself.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, whose report was obtained by Reuters, on Tuesday addresses the U.N. Security Council, which asked him last March to prosecute individuals responsible for atrocities in Darfur.
After identifying "particularly grave events" such as the "high numbers of killings," mass rapes and other crimes, he said he had "now selected a number of alleged criminal incidents for full investigation."
But his team of 29 experts has not been able to interview witnesses in Sudan. Instead, Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine, said he had "screened" 100 potential witnesses outside of Sudan and said he expected assistance from 11 nations and 17 advocacy and humanitarian groups.
In addition, he said his office had analyzed more than 2,500 items collected by a U.N.-established inquiry commission that reported last January.
The prosecutor, who has made one trip to Khartoum to talk to government officials, said he hoped to visit Sudan's special court and other judicial bodies investigating crimes in Darfur early next year.
Under the 1998 Rome statutes setting up the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), the prosecutor can only conduct investigations when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
Among 160 suspects, Sudan's special court has convicted 13, including one for murder, Moreno Ocampo said.
But in an 85-page report over the weekend, timed for his visit, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said not one mid- or high level government official, military commander or militia leader had been suspended, prosecuted or investigated by Sudanese courts.
Moreno Ocampo gave a list of actions he would or could not take, including the almost impossible task of protecting witnesses. He also said he was considering whether a prosecution would interfere with the peace process.
And he said a list of 51 suspects given to him by the U.N. inquiry commission last April was "in no way binding" and had to be re-investigated by his staff.
That commission urged suspects be tried by the ICC and accused the government and allied Arab militia of torture, rape, killings and pillaging. It also accused Sudanese rebels of violence.
The United Nations has called Darfur one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, saying the conflict between the rebels, the government and its allied Arab militia has caused countless deaths, rapes and uprooted 2 million people.
The International Criminal Court is the first permanent global war crimes tribunal, first envisioned after the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II.
It was set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after July 1, 2002.
The United States vehemently opposes the tribunal, arguing that it could initiate politically motivated prosecutions of American troops and officials abroad. But it allowed the council last March to refer Darfur to the ICC by abstaining.
A total of 100 countries have ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty that established the court and believe it contains enough safeguards to prevent frivolous prosecutions.

Top Sudan leaders had role in Darfur crimes - report
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and 20 other government, military and Janjaweed militia members should be investigated for ordering, condoning or carrying out atrocities in the Darfur region, a leading human rights group said.
The 85-page report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, released on Sunday, documents through eyewitness accounts, government papers and its own investigations of their alleged role in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur since mid-2003.
"The Sudanese government at the highest levels is responsible for widespread and systematic abuses in Darfur," the report said. "The Sudanese government's systematic attacks on civilians in Darfur have been accompanied by a policy of impunity for all those responsible for the crimes."
The report was prepared for use by the International Criminal Court, which the U.N. Security Council assigned in March to indict individuals responsible for the abuses. Its prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, addresses the council on Tuesday but has not yet ordered any indictments.
In addition, the rights group said the U.N. Security Council should incorporate the list of names in its register of suspects eligible for travel and other sanctions. The council voted for the sanctions nine months ago but has taken no action.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have been killed since a revolt in Darfur began in early 2003 by non-Arab villagers who accused the government of neglect and repression. The report charged that Khartoum in retaliation armed Arab Janjaweed militia and drafted them into police and other security forces as they looted, raped and drove 2 million people out of their homes.
The Khartoum government over the past two years has vigorously denied its affiliation with the Janjaweed and set up its own special courts to try suspects. But Human Rights Watch said the government has made no "genuine" effort to investigate, discipline or prosecute those responsible.
By early 2004 it was clear, even to some soldiers, that civilians were the targets, said the report, entitled "Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur."
'YOU HAVE TO ATTACK THE CIVILIANS'
One former soldier was quoted as telling Human Rights Watch that when he protested to his commander, he was told, "You have to attack the civilians."
Although the Sudanese government probably does not have full control over all militia any longer, the report says the "out of control" state of affairs provides the government with the deniability it believes it needs to counter international protests."
Bashir, a lieutenant general, who is also commander-in-chief of the army, played a pivotal role, the report said. Even his public statements were "precursors to the call to arms and peaks in the violence, and no doubt echoed the private directives given to the civilian administration, military, and security services."
Also on the list is Vice President Ali Osman Taha, who has been praised for negotiating the north-south peace agreement that a year ago ended decades of civil war.
The report acknowledged there was little documentary evidence about Taha. But it quoted community leaders who said he arranged for the release from prison in 2003 of Musa Hilal, an acknowledged Janjaweed figure. They contended Hilal, also on the rights group list, took orders from Taha alone.
Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Abduraheem Mohammed Hussein, the former interior minister, was Bashir's envoy in Darfur in 1994. The report said he appeared to have played a central role in coordinating the "ethnic cleansing" campaign, with his deputy, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Haroun, also on the list.
"Both were named by numerous witnesses who noted that their visits to Darfur always preceded military offensives and militia attacks," the report said.
December 12, 2005

Silence Prevails??

2005-12-06T17:00:00.000+01:00

I am tired of talking to myself on this thing…

I’ve been ill on and off for awhile. I can’t find a proper diagnosis, so I simply call it Chad. This weekend I went to the hospital in Abeche, which was a tourist experience to be had. Using our connections, we (meaning I am not alone in my Chad) were quickly seen for the always useful malaria test. They offered to do some other tests, but I opted to refrain (peeing in a cup without a bathroom?), and settled in for the quick finger prick malaria test. Well, that quick finger prick turned into a rather interesting discussion on Bush and I was so pleased to find some sympathetic Chadians (“We love Clinton!”). In the end, the big result was negative, but I was still sent off with a collection of drugs.

I also found some time in Abeche to read the newspaper at UNHCR – well papers from last month, but it’s still news to me! Riots in Paris, protests in Tehran, the usual Thomas Friedman op-ed, German grand coalition – who knew?

I took a field trip early last week with an obliging NGO to Tine, on the Sudanese border. It is the shopping Mecca of Eastern Chad, so I had pretty big expectations, as I am sure you can imagine. What I found was a funny little Chinatown of sorts – lots of Penasonics, but not many people buying! I was also initially overwhelmed by the military presence, but was pleasantly surprised to find that many of them are African Union (AU) troops – the Tine bunch were Senegalese. Frankly, I thought they were only in Darfur, but apparently their mandate has been expanded to include Eastern Chad. Interesting, indeed.

Most annoying event of the day? The Prefect coming to my office this morning and expecting ME to stop all work to be his secretary, type some letters and print them (mind you our printer works NEVER and we have to hassle to turn on the generator and burn our fuel to engage in such an endeavor). The Prefect is appointed by the President and this one is so typically young and arrogant, at the same time, the Chadian staff walk on eggshells for him. I brushed off the Prefect, saying that I don’t speak French anyways, but then one of my staff just had to pipe up and volunteer herself and my computer. Terrific. I bit my tongue for a good hour until I could show the man the door.

Ah, CHAD!

Iridimi Refugee Camp

2005-11-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

Grazing camels

2005-11-27T15:24:00.000+01:00

Does silence indeed speak louder than words?

2005-11-27T14:20:00.000+01:00

I suppose I am keeping to the policy that if you have nothing nice to say, it is best not to say anything at all.

But that isn’t fair, or is it?

Yes, things are tough. In the middle of the afternoon one can be startled by the deafening noise of Chadian-manned French fighter planes zooming over the town en route to hunt out army defectors who have crossed into Sudan. Or, after kissing up to one self-righteous, selfish WFP worker, get on-line to find an email detailing the banditry of “rebels” who broke into the hospital and the prefect of the other town where I am working, stealing vehicles. Then there is that one occasion where I am invited for a visit at another NGO, only to find that the driver has left with the key to the car. Fine, I walk, taking a guard and his friend with me only to find that when I arrived at my destination, there was a special alert out for the town and that nobody should be out. And there I am showing up, clear from the other side of town, with my flashlight and French 1664 beers in my backpack. What can I do?

I missed another Thanksgiving, my third African one in a row. Tilapia in Kigali, meatless chicken in Gulu, and Chad? Well, I thought I might make something given the lack of restaurants but instead resigned myself to a packet of Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal. Funny how the childhood comforts never leave us. And the best part of the week? Two mysterious packs of Starbursts delivered from Abeche. They never tasted so good. I’m still saving the strawberries.

What else has happened? The water pump was broken for several days, hurting my dearly prized bathing ritual (those good smelling hair compliments don’t come easy!) and causing most residents to keep a safe distance from one another. Humanitarian workers had to ask the question, “is it bad to take water from the camps where the water is plenty?” The last time I flew to Abeche I realized that the planes have a direct view into my latrine/bathing cubicle, leading to extreme vigilance on my part. Yet on one unfortunate morning, the plane arrived early: )

Work continues, as does my head banging. I wish I could talk more about it, but…

As is increasingly the case, I find that I cannot write about what my life is really about. It’s frustrating, leaving me to wonder why I even bother with this blog. There is just something about the increasing responsibility and need to be careful these days. It’s a small world after all.

I must have something to say about Chad, the refugees from Darfur, something! What is wrong with me? I suppose what stands out most in my mind this week, was that during a meeting with women leaders in one of the camps, they wanted to know what we were doing to end the conflict in Darfur so they could go home. It jolted me awake, after hours of discussing the hardships facing women and girls in the camps (sexual and physical abuse by the local population when they go to get firewood, female genital mutilation, early/forced marriage, etc.). What can I say? Especially when I know that any and all Darfur peace talks are flailing and that violence is increasing in the region? That not only is the outlook dim in Darfur, but Chad isn’t looking so hot either? Can’t we all just start over again?

My cynicism is palpable, yet I am supposed to be the idealistic humanitarian, right?

Many questions this week.

Sometimes I spend time, just staring at the mud walls of my room, especially where the mud is dripping, and wonder if the whole mud house will collapse. What would it take? And how do those darn chickens find their way onto the tin roof – and why at such an ungodly hour?? While chicken has been the only form of meat that I would stomach, I find myself resigning even from that important source of protein. Is this because I see and hear them prancing around the compound, thus unable to bring myself to enjoy their untimely death? Chad…

Chad tensions

2005-11-19T11:53:00.000+01:00

CHAD: Embattled president turfs kinsmen from military leadership

NDJAMENA, 17 November (IRIN) -
Vowing defiance in the wake of a series of incidents that may have loosened his grip on power, Chad's President Idriss Deby has removed members of his own ethnic group from the military's top posts.Speaking on Wednesday to hundreds of supporters gathered outside the presidential palace, an embattled Deby pledged to stand firm despite recent desertions and attacks on the military."We can't allow opportunists from this or that armed group to make impossible claims when there is a constitution, adopted by the People of Chad, which condemns violent acts," said Deby, who came to power in a 1990 coup d'etat."It's important that we be strong against these mercenaries in order to bring peace and order back to the country," he added only two days after unidentified gunmen had attacked two camps in the capital Ndjamena and its outskirts.The situation is particularly tense in the country's east where an unestablished number of soldiers have joined the rebel Rally for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD) after deserting their posts.Two years of fighting in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur Province have destabilised eastern Chad and proved a real conundrum for Deby.The conflict opposes the Sudanese government, which facilitated Deby's rise to power, to rebels, many of whom belong to the president's own Zaghawa ethnic group that dominates senior posts in the armed forces.But a number of Chadian officers have criticised the president for not giving enough support to Darfur's Zaghawas and his kinsmen were behind a mutiny in May 2004. The head of the SCUD group of deserters, Yaya Dillo Djerou, is also Zaghawa.In a decree on Tuesday night, Deby named Banyara Kossingar chief of staff and made Nadjita Beassoumal, a former companion in arms, commander of the air force. Both are southerners and were promoted at the expense of Zaghawas. In all, there are 200 names on Tuesday's decree which extends to the police and military units throughout the country.No official explanation was given but officers contacted by IRIN said that Deby, whose power base traditionally lies with the Zaghawas, no longer trusts his kinsmen and is reaching out to other ethnic groups to regain control of the situation. "The president has taken away the Zaghawas' exclusive hold on power and is rewarding career officers," a Chadian army officer told IRIN on Thursday on condition of anonymity."But they haven't been completely flushed out. Outside the capital, Zaghawa commanders have simply been assigned deputies from other ethnic groups."The Chadian president is no stranger to military reshuffles or armed opponents.Last month, Deby overhauled the republican guard charged with ensuring his security after a number of its members had deserted.And last year, he accused the Sudanese government of harbouring 3,000 rebels operating in the border region.

The Road to Guereda

2005-11-17T18:08:00.000+01:00

November 16, 2005

Today I did a day trip with my assistant to Guereda, the base for project activities in the refugee camps of Mile and Kounoungo. I always thrive on getting out of the office and into the field, despite that our driver today had me digging my nails into the dashboard. I tried to explain to him that as a child protection organization, it would not be looked on well for us to hit a small refugee child. I continued to scream “lentement!”, as though he didn’t hear me the first time. The driver’s most shameful moment was when he lost his temper with a small boy on the road who had thrown a rock at the car. The jerk stopped the car, hopped out, and ran after the boy, looking like a complete moron. He even picked up a rock and I was screaming at him to leave the kid alone. Had the man had the nerve to physically touch the child, I would have hopped over to the driver’s seat and attempted the sand and desert myself, leaving the moron to think over his behavior. Luckily, he won’t be working with me anymore!

Regardless, it was a lovely journey through eastern Chad. The roads, being that they are made of desert sand, are horrible, and I am somehow still struck with the vast emptiness. Occasionally we would pass a sole woman sitting by the side of the road and I’d just have to wonder what she was waiting for in this nothingness. There were many camels along the way – I find them simply fascinating! The creatures seem to come from some other world, as they eat off the trees like giraffes, but trollop along like an awkward horse. And there are turbaned men on horseback, women and small children traveling on donkeys. I was wondering if getting one’s own donkey was somehow comparable to a child getting their first bike – that freedom!

I was warmly received in Guereda, welcomed into a few homes. Anywhere in Africa, when offered food or drink, you are obliged to take it, less risk offending your host. Well, I was offered a luke-warm “Chadian” porridge with contents that sent off all sorts of warning bells in my head. Regardless, rather than offend a very sweet host who clearly had little means to be feeding others, I drank the porridge. Needless to say, the porridge still haunts…

Oh, the rumor of the attempted coup d’etat has been ironed out. It turns out that some rebels broke into the Chadian army weapons stores in N’djamena and made off with all sorts of goodies (though even this is still hearsay). Don’t ask me how this was possible or what it means. This is Chad. I don’t understand anything.

But I am doing my best to educate myself further about this region. What is evident is that the Darfur region of Sudan has for years served as a battleground for geo-political wranglings between Libya, Chad, and Sudan (and even the CIA had a base there in the old-school days). The latest episode of violence in Darfur, well, more to come on that…

Iriba

2005-11-15T18:03:00.000+01:00

Perhaps I am

2005-11-15T18:01:00.000+01:00

American after all...

It’s true. I think I may be American after all. My relationship to my homeland has been tenuous these past years (a strange correlation with a change in the political landscape in 2000) and at times when traveling/living abroad, I have tried to pass for a Canadian in hopes of avoiding the usual inclinations to discuss American politics. What I am realizing is that while I have genuine and founded fears of where the US is going, I cannot deny that I have some of that American essence. Or maybe I am just full of it and I’ve sniffed too much desert sand up my nose these past weeks??

So where is this digression coming from? Well, apparently and unavoidably, my Americanism is evident in my work, or more correctly, my frustrations with my work here. Working in this field requires one to work closely with people from all corners of the world and all walks of life. While I like to believe that I am a fairly open and accommodating person, I am in fact realizing that I am quite rigid (in fact, for the first time, I was called a control freak by a colleague in Uganda!). I am big on making a plan, figuring out how to make the plan happen, and then just doing it! While I can understand that things don’t run smoothly in these settings and one must always have a contingency plan, I cannot stand the bureaucracy created around the most basic of activities.

Where is this all going? I don’t know. Just that I am finding myself wanting to bang my head against the wall, paralyzed from doing the work I was sent here to do! I find myself having to continually remove myself from an infuriating situation to take a few breaths, compose myself, and return to go at it again.

Perhaps I shall shift topics?

This week does mark a momentous occasion for me – my month anniversary in Chad. This is no small feat, I tell you. Now if I can just make it a bit longer!

Last night my colleague informed me that he had just heard that there had been an attempted coup d’etat by the army. I’ve yet to hear any confirmation or official information, but I can tell you that my stomach was in my throat at the very thought of a coup actually succeeding here. As I fell asleep last night, I tried to prioritize what items I would flee with and could I get away with carrying more than the 15 kilos that UNHCR dictates we can take?? If we were evacuated, who would take my stuff? Would the people of Iriba be caught wearing my heathen Western clothes? When they break into my room, would they break in the door or calmly cut off the lock? See what happens when one is left to her imagination in this place!!

Images

2005-11-13T14:05:00.000+01:00

Some kiddies in Iriba

A Friday night with canned fruit, planning my liberation

2005-11-13T13:38:00.000+01:00

November 11, 2005

Yes, indeed. It is not even 7pm yet and I’ve already re-heated and eaten my overly saturated pasta as I watched a strange bonfire just beyond my back porch. Now it’s dessert time, meaning canned fruit cocktail, and it’s dawned on me that I can and should improve my state of being in Iriba. My problem is that I am physically stranded. What is my obstacle? Manual transmission, again! Yes, I’ve had my few lessons in Uganda, but need a quick tutoring before attempting to go solo on the sand. I could radio to get somebody to come pick me up, but I am ridiculously still too nervous to use it – I don’t need the whole town knowing just how incompetent I am in French. And shouldn’t people just want to come see me without having to say it anyways?

But why should one need to drive when one can walk? Well, I am not supposed to walk at night (and darkness descends by 5pm), though I am admittedly tempted. Where would I even go? Visit another NGO (namely one with a tv or good Scooby snacks) and stop by WFP to check in with the rest of the world on internet. What do I really want to do? Hit the gym, have a nice latte, followed by a spicy Indian dinner complete with naan and a glass of bubbly. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

I did hit the market yesterday. I coerced the new “cook” Anik to go with me to serve as French-Arabic translator, hoping she would ensure I wouldn’t get screwed over, in search of a couverture (blanket). If there is one thing that I so fundamentally love about this continent, it’s the markets! Even in Iriba, the market is quite lovely. I was just put off by the fact that nobody was hounding me to look at their stall or to purchase a pair of pants made for a 12 year-old. In fact, the vendors seemed to care less that I was even perusing their items. When I did find some blankets I was unable to get any impassioned bargaining going – is this AFRICA? No bargaining? I kept prodding Anik to do some bargaining on my behalf but she just shyly giggled, looking down. Clearly she was not going to be helpful. And when the man I bought a blanket from attempted to give me 1000 CFA change when he really owed me 6000, Anik was again of no help. No East African would stand for such injustice! Ok, cultural differences. I must be sensitive and respect. Nonetheless, I will do the markets solo in the future…

News: An NGO’s car was hijacked yesterday en route to Guereda (the other town where I will be working). The “rebels” (nobody seems to know exactly who they are), removed the radios and made off with the car and some people were injured. All cars are to drive in convoys right now. Vehicle later recovered across the border in Sudan...

Going back to the mystery bandits, there are all sorts of rebels running around. I have yet to get my grasp on all the dynamics. There are those who defected from the Chadian army, others running back and forth across the Sudanese border, I believe leftovers from past civil wars, as well as plain “evil doers” (Notice inclusion of a Bushism).

Chad Mental Status Check

2005-11-10T17:57:00.000+01:00

As I’ve shared with many of you, I have to admit that I do have a solid ten minutes (give or take) a day where I doubt why I ever came to Chad. Should I just call it a day and go back home? Today those ten minutes turned into a couple of hours where I devised an array of exit strategies, but somehow, I always come back around. Something always happens to make me laugh at myself and this situation, or in today’s case, my luggage arrived and I now have my boxed wine! In the end, I am determined to do what I was sent to do.

I am not the only one who seems to suffer from “Chad” syndrome and I think there is such a tight expat community because of the additional stress of working here and the distance we all somehow feel from the local population. I cannot tell you how many people have told me that if you can work here, you can work anywhere. We are all aware of the sorry state of our existence, but somehow we drudge forward, taking comfort in the little joys. For such a short time here, I’ve had such a great time with some of the strangest combinations of people from all parts of the world. We can somehow turn a night of eating whatever the hell we can find to mix up into a salsa dance party.

So how is the work? Well, I’ve visited one of our camps of operation and it was quite a contrast to the IDP camps in Northern Uganda. Desolation, spread out, dust, wind, few people out, aside from the women walking for firewood and water…Pictures are probably best. What I am struck by is the organization of the camps, all of which are managed by international NGOs. Language is tricky- though I’ve been struggling through Franglais in Iriba and Abeche, French gets me nowhere with Sudanese refugees who speak their own dialect of Arabic, which is different from that spoken by Chadians. I gave a training to my staff today, and everything I said had to be translated from English to French by my assistant, and then from French to Chadian Arabic by another worker and then vice versa when they want to talk to me. No wonder it takes forever to get anything done!

In case you have forgotten, I remain in my “sparse” living conditions. I managed to get two showers (and toilet!) in at another NGO this week and that is all anybody can really hope for. Food? There still isn’t any. Canned food gets old real quick and I continue in my attempts (though often in vain) to get other people to cook for me. There are only so many combinations I can concoct from pasta, canned tuna fish/veggies/fruits/lentils, and the occasional REAL tomato (peanut butter is a special breakfast treat and I am rationing oatmeal packets for a rainy day). My only score is the discovery of some children’s Flintstone-style chewable vitamins. The vitamins now serve as my candy fix – I take two mid-morning to pretend like I am having a little snack. I am freezing at night, hoping that as Thursday is market day, I can find a blanket. There are rumors that one can get potatoes on market day, but I’ve just found out that no such luck this week. I also eagerly await allergy medicine from the States, though what I can be allergic to other than dust and sand is beyond me!

I continue to fail in my attempt to paint a picture of the people or this region, let alone the Darfurian refugees. I suppose I just cannot get words around my impressions. I also think it takes much longer to really get a sense of what is going on beneath the surface. Give me time…

The things they say in Chad

2005-11-10T17:55:00.000+01:00

Is the guard dead?
Again in Abeche. My colleague and I were going for an evening trip to the World Food Program office to schmooze our way on-line. We expected that the guard would hop up to open the gate as we came out of the house. He appeared to be resting on a bench. I made an extra effort to open the car door loudly and gradually proceeded with some very loud “bon soirs!” “ excusez-moi!” “alo??” The guard refused to move. Granted it was dark and all we could see was what appeared to be a man draped across a bench. My colleague and I both hovered over the guard yelling for him to wake up. Not even a stir. In about a 30 second span of time I went through an entire scenario of the guard being dead and what would we do? I bet the police will come and think that those horrible white women killed the guard! They will put us in some dark, torturous little jail where we will suffer for the remainder of our lives (flashes of the movies where the Americans are arrested in Thailand when the unknowingly carry drugs in their luggage). Ok, so I stoop down, relax, and attempt to see if the man’s chest is rising and falling. I can’t tell! Again, I try. Ok, it appears he is breathing. My colleague finally shakes the hell out of him, and without so much as a start, he rolls over and gazes at us with blurry eyes, as if we are disturbing him for requesting that, as the guard, he remain awake. Terrific. Nothing like a drunk to protect us in Chad!

They are bringing out the body.
Early Saturday evening: my colleague and I are going to the “Cameroon Club” for a beer with colleagues in Abeche. We show up to what appears to be some sort of disturbance. I was trying to have a look in, but avoiding the strange scene of motorcycles driving out. Suddenly our colleagues are running out of the bar and dashing to the cars for a getaway. Ah, there’s been a fight. Someone comments, “they are bringing out the body!” Was a person killed in the fight or just injured? I have no desire to find out, but rather to get the hell out! You never know what might happen in such circumstances.

Chad is like Alaska
We finally figured out why every man seems to be pining for time with us ladies – there’s a shortage of us! Chad seems to have a high concentration of expat men, while only a few women have made there way to the desolation. I’m not complaining about the attention…

Chad isn’t the end of the earth, but you can see it from there!
The comment of one soul upon arriving in Bahai, which is just north of Iriba. I landed there on my way back to Iriba on Monday and it indeed appears to be the end of the earth – just endless desert brown, blowing sand… You know, I feel I’m at the end of the earth!

Ah, Chad!
The words that any expat sighs over and over in any given day. That which seems unexplainable can be encapsulated in this short expression.

Dude, where's my toilet? Part Deux

2005-11-04T18:34:00.000+01:00

Posting after the fact, due to communication difficulties!

November 2, 2005

Iriba! Iriba! After two weeks in Chad I finally made it to my home base village of Iriba. I again got stuck in Abeche longer than expected, but at least had the chance to go to the local Jamba Juice, also known as a dude with a blender and fruit on the street. Now that’s Eastern Chad living! I was a little weary of the little UN plane ride to Iriba, especially after some stomach flipping sessions in northern Uganda, but the experience was quite alright, perhaps even amusing, as one pilot would craftily swat the bugs on the windshield as we flew along. We arrived on a strip of, well, desert, that was lined by rocks. No building whatsoever to indicate that we had indeed landed in an airport - Iriba International Airport, that is. My colleague and I hitched to our office, as we had no way to communicate that we would be arriving. Within a few hours, I’d made a few acquaintances and already secured a few invitations for showers.

So here is the dealio. My mud-walled, UNHCR ceiling-tarped office and home are one in the same and for now, I don’t have my own room. I am sleeping on the floor of what will become my room in a week’s time, insh’allah. No running water (hence no shower), no electricity, no toilet, no stove, no phones, no food, little furniture (the list just continues), but a whole lotta sand and dust. I’ve got a little partition in the “back yard” that serves the double purpose of toilet (bare hole in the ground) and place of bathing. I get my weightlifting by carrying a bucket of water from the “front yard” back to the partition (past the crying goat that will be the end of Ramadan feast for the guards), where I then play a game of duck-n-bathe, as the partition walls are quite low and in a culture highly concerned with the coverage of women, I must do my best to not give any peep shows. Also funny to find how one’s eating standards can change. I was famished yesterday, without breakfast or lunch, and I started eyeing my canned veggies and fruit cocktail, but wanted something more substantial. I made some pasta, but had nothing to put on it, that is until I came across some semi-molded pesto. While I would never consider consuming the pesto in any other circumstances, I couldn’t resist (When in Tchad…). I did the smell test and it was surprisingly appetizing. Yes, so I have now added mold to my food repertoire. Note to self for next time: pack more food, pack vitamins.

Ah, but Iriba is a welcome relief from N’djamena and even Abeche. The climate is a bit cooler and there’s a constant breeze. I’ve already been warmly received by the Iriban community of humanitarian workers (again, invitations for showers says it all – sounds like a pick-up line, huh?). The town, well, it’s tiny, and I’m elated to be walking place to place. Beyond town lies what seems like vast nothingness. Amazing how people can adapt to such climates. The children, who should of course be in school and not hanging out on the street, are quite timid and not as boisterous as the Abeche children who constantly demand to be given “un cadeau!” Better than asking for money, I suppose.

It’s time to get down to work, but as it is now Eid, the end of Ramadan, people are busy celebrating. I have not yet made it to the camps I will be working in, but hopefully after I return from a weekend of “coordination” meetings in Abeche. Working on gender-based violence in this region is a whole new ballpark than what I’ve previously been doing in the Great Lakes Region, namely as the Darfurian refugees and their Chadian hosts are largely Muslims and practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) persist widely. I will certainly be expanding on this at a later time.

Security in this region remains tenuous, though Iriba is calm for the time being. Tensions are increasing between the Darfur refugees and the host Chadian communities, which means we must find the delicate balance in our work of assisting the refugees, but not forsaking the local populations who see the humanitarian agencies favoring the refugees when they themselves are living in pretty tough conditions. In an attempt to address this issue, the project I am managing focuses both on the camps and nearby Chadian villages. Chadians, though mostly from the south and capital, are benefiting from the new NGO job market in the east as well, though naturally this isn’t necessarily sustainable. Actually, some NGOs were attacked by local Iriba Chadians in protest to the hiring of staff from N’djamena (though it’s the folks in N’djamena who are educated and experienced).

2005-10-30T21:02:00.000+01:00

I'll throw in one N'djamena sunset for you, on the Chari River.

2005-10-30T20:59:00.000+01:00

Energetic boys of Abeche - can you see the little car in the back? Those are the taxis!

2005-10-30T20:58:00.000+01:00

Tell me that this doesn't look like a good time

2005-10-30T20:56:00.000+01:00

Abeche: Sweet girls that I tried to befriend along the road.

Sans Peur

2005-10-30T20:37:00.000+01:00

I am starting this entry because I am locked in, or am I locked out? It’s Sunday morning in Abéché, after a rather bizarre Saturday evening, and I’ve found that the door to the rest of the house is closed. While it’s not locked, nobody has bothered to put a handle on the door, so it can only be opened from one side, namely the side that I am not on. I reasoned that at least I have the kitchen on my side, but it dawned on me that I do have a door to the outside and next to that door is a pile of keys. I’ve gone through every key several times, but cannot open to the outside world. So now I’ve resigned myself to sit with my $2 coke and pass the time until my colleague comes through – I slipped a note under the door, declaring my precarious situation.

Hummm, Abéché. Desert, sand, donkeys, children pushing huge carts filled with watermelons, men in horse-drawn carts, women wrapped head-to-toe with eyes averted, the most spectacular stars, but then huge white SUVs transporting the “humanitarian community” to and fro (yours truly included). Abéché is the home of le President Deby – he was in town when I arrived attempting to negotiate with army defectors who’ve apparently crossed into Sudan. I’ve seen his home from a distance, but warned to never drive or walk there, and after the incident with the US Ambassador’s wife in N’djamena, I’ve no need to tempt the gods. Biggest downfall are the horrible allergies I seem to be debilitated by – apparently Claritin has not made it to the Chad market yet…

It’s been a couple of good days here and I am not sure if anything can beat a Saturday night out in Abéché. It started with a Cameroonian dinner with colleagues and then off to the French Army base. I am not joking. The French Army base is where to be on a Saturday night and what a strange scene it was! I took it for a little anthropological experiment, but I admit quite enjoyed myself. Do humanitarians and military mix? Well, no, but they were rumored to have the only Heinekens in town, and as I find myself saying all the time, “When in Tchad…” So I arrive a little suspicious with my colleague and am immediately amused by the strange scene. Within minutes, a cold beverage in hand, I am putting my stellar Franglais to use, and in no time, on the dance floor showing the French soldiers what’s up to 80s French music. I think you had to be there…

So here I am, still attempting to get my feet beneath me. Tomorrow I will finally be heading to the field, catching a tiny World Food Program flight to Iriba (not a fan of little planes!), and settling into my home base. As Ramadan ends this week, it probably will not be the most productive. My colleagues contend that it is somehow cold and winter-like there, but I just cannot fathom it from where I now sit. Oh, did I mention that it is hotter than hell here? That I take three showers a day (and will have NO shower in Iriba)? That I’ve moved my bed to the center of the room to be directly under the fan? That a cold water is not cold for long? That washed clothes dry in minutes or that the moisture is all too quickly sucked from my beloved baguettes, leaving me with a dry, stale rock to smear my laughing cow cheese?

I am happy for a chill Chadian Sunday and being freed from my room would help immensely. I even left me cell phone on the other side. Doh! My luggage has yet to make its way from N’djamena and I’ve now been told it will travel with our organization’s radios by road. I cannot even tell you how many descriptions of “banditry” I’ve read about central Chad, so I am not counting on my bag ever arriving, though I am in dire need of that peanut butter, box of wine, some clothes, and a razor!

Ah, I finally made it out! Domestic Sunday, washing clothes, and after fasting the day away, attempted to make eggs in a pot over the gas-cooker device. As one colleague described our situation in Chad: it’s like camping, only with a house.

My old office in Lira, Uganda

2005-10-27T12:41:00.000+01:00

I got a text message Tuesday night informing me of the following incident with my former colleagues in Northern Uganda. I was distraught, I called one of my colleagues in Lira to see what was going on.

Two aid workers for Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) were attacked near Lira in Northern Uganda, where they were working on CCF health programs among internally displaced persons (IDP). The attack on CCF staff resulted in two injuries. In subsequent attacks, aid workers from two other organizations were attacked, resulting in two deaths and two injuries. CCF has suspended all activities in Northern Uganda for one week, pending an investigation of the attacks on non-governmental organizations.
The two wounded CCF workers, both from Uganda, are Patrick Erach, 27, and Nelson Munu, 28. They were shot Tuesday morning, October 25, as their car was on the way to the Okwang IDP camp on the Okwongo Road in Northern Uganda. The car, which carried CCF-Uganda identification, was reportedly sprayed with bullets. The driver was not injured.
Erach was shot in the chest, and Munu was shot in the foot. Both were airlifted from the Lira hospital to Kampala where more advanced medical treatment is available. Following surgery, Erach remains in intensive care.
“This is a tragic event, which has become all too commonplace in conflict areas around the world,” noted CCF President John F. Schultz. “Humanitarian agencies depend on safety and security to carry out our work.
“Patrick and Nelson are representative of those professionals who selflessly give of themselves to help others in need,” Schultz continued. “Their goal is to help the villagers who have been terrorized daily in the ongoing regional conflict.
“CCF has been working in Uganda since 1980. When the conflict escalated between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government in Northern Uganda, we continued working in the region distributing food, establishing Child Centered Spaces in IDP camps, initiating health interventions and child protection programs,” Schultz noted. “It’s tragic when aid workers, who give of themselves to help others in need, are injured, kidnapped, or even killed. We hope that governments around the world will take action to stop these kinds of tragedies.”
Erach and Munu work for CCF as contractors, carrying out health interventions as part of a UNICEF health grant, which focuses on prevention of common diseases in IDP camps.
CCF is an international child development organization working in 33 countries, assisting 10.5 million children and family members, without regard to religion, race or gender.

Made it out!

2005-10-27T12:36:00.000+01:00

Super quick note. I am dependent on the kindness of UN staff possessing internet to allow me to connect to the outside world.

I arrived safely in Abeche: gateway to Eastern Chad. I will hopefully be able to post something meaty in the next few days before I fly out to Iriba. But I am happy and healthy in the desert, just going over that list of things I should have brought!!

Until soon, insh'allah!

Sans problem

2005-10-25T10:13:00.000+01:00

This is just to say don't worry!!
I am doing just fine, just biding my time in N'djamena, hoping that I can get on a flight. I should be departing tomorrow.

No papers, No travel

2005-10-24T16:07:00.000+01:00

Alright, I should know better than to assume that everything will go according to plan. I am stranded in N’djamena for the time being, awaiting some big bureaucrat’s signature on my papers for travel and work in Eastern Chad. While I shouldn’t complain, and I should indeed enjoy some of the capital city comforts, N’djamena is a bit of a purgatory. In addition to what I’ve mentioned about security in the city and my inability to move around freely, there is nothing I can accomplish work wise from the capita – N’djamena and Eastern Chad are essentially worlds apart. I am simply on hold until I can get out into the field. And to give you an idea of just how expensive this place is; in under four days I managed to burn my entire food allowance. Yesterday I joined some people at one of the hotels for a buffet lunch and swim at a total cost of $40. I am currently surviving off of handouts until I can get another allowance…

I am doing what I can to be somewhat productive. I’ve met some of my colleagues who are Iriba based, and in addition to briefings of my predecessor, I am getting the Iriba/Eastern Chad lowdown. Those on their way out of Chad love to point to little N’djamena luxuries and taunt how I won’t be seeing that anywhere in the east! People have stressed over and over again the importance of sharing resources. To put it more bluntly, I need to make friends with the right people to get what I need in Iriba. Using my Franglais, I’ve already started the building blocks to wooing colleagues from other organizations possessing showers, satellite phones, and wine. I think the winning ticket was my Michael Jackson dance skills, as I at least think the others are convinced that I would make a good addition to any Iriba party.

Again, rushed on the internet. There just isn't time.

Sweaty and Weary in N'djamena

2005-10-22T12:02:00.000+01:00

A long trip to N’djamena, Chad. The only noteworthy moment was in a Charles de Gaulle airport bookshop where in the travel section, and to my absolute astonishment, there was a Chad guide! Leave it to the former colonial power to promote and protect its enclave of French-speakers en Le Tchad. Somehow I think the only people interested in such a guide, as this isn’t exactly a tourist destination, are the crazies like me who come here for work.

I arrived in N’djamena late in the evening on Wednesday and was immediately overwhelmed by that smell that I come to call the smell of Africa. Within moments I was ushered into the hot, overcrowded terminal, choking on the cigarette smoke of the Frenchies fresh off the plane. To my great fortune, there was a young Indian man there to greet me who ushered me ahead of the customs line, though that did me little good, as we had to watch the airport staff manually toss our luggage through the window, as the conveyer belt was apparently broken. About half way through this operation, the luggage belt suddenly started moving and progress was ours. Always a relief, my luggage arrived in tact and, already with clothes soaked through with sweat, I was ushered into a strange van and whisked away to the guesthouse/office. I quickly realized that I was a bit spoiled in Uganda and was a bit disappointed in my Spartan accommodation, but whatcha gonna do?

I’ve been in the race to get acquainted with my new surroundings and get caught up on the goings on with work, which apparently includes another set of baggage equipped with gossip, drama, and whole lotta hearsay. I’m trying to get the necessary information without getting myself mired in the mess. I will fly out of N’djamena on Monday to Abéché, which is the hub for all humanitarian action in Eastern Chad. There I will meet some of my colleagues and get acquainted with all of the major actors in the area. At some point I will board yet another plane and make the journey to Iriba, a little village near the border of Sudan where I shall be based. I’ve been pre-warned on the state of affairs in Iriba but choose to await all lamentations until I see for myself…

N’djamena is one crazy place, not to mention the most expensive country I have ever been to - yes bypassing the UK! I am under no circumstances allowed to walk on the streets, whether broad daylight or what have you. Too many staff have been mugged in broad daylight, not to mention the US Ambassador’s wife getting shot dead when her car broke down outside the presidential offices. Today I was walking with a colleague from a café to an internet café, which was literally next store, and we had to request that a guard escort us the 15 feet to our next destination. Tonight, after finishing a dinner at Le Bistro at 8:30pm, I felt I was taking the biggest security risk yet, as we had to cross the street to hop into the MSF vehicle which had come to pick us. Is this Africa or Iraq?

Ah, already so much to describe, let alone the social and political developments. Deep breaths. While I may find the time to write about this all, postings may be few and far in between due to complete lack of communications in the town I will be based. I’ve only gotten ankle deep into the Chad dynamics, but with frequent conflict with Libya, the complications brought on by Sudanese conflict, and the general contention between different groups in Chad (primarily North versus South), this place is one complicated “state” delicately balancing the scales between façade of stability and total collapse. I am told that President Derby pretty much has no liver and may keel over at any moment, in which case I will either be elated to be isolated on the Eastern border with Sudan or ecstatic to have my “emergency” bag backed to be evacuated the hell out! At a minimum, I can already attest to Transparency International’s ranking Chad as the most corrupt/least transparent country in the world.

So much more to say, just don't know when I will get to say it all!

Chaos Grows...

2005-10-18T15:28:00.000+01:00

October 18, 2005
Chaos Grows in Darfur Conflict as Militias Turn on Government
By MARC LACEY
ZAM ZAM, Sudan, Oct. 17 - The outlaws who rode into Geneina on camelback one recent afternoon represent the latest grim chapter in the desert war in western Sudan.
Janjaweed militias have focused their wrath on innocent villagers for most of the two and a half years of the conflict in the Darfur region. But on Sept. 18, in a scene that aid workers described as something out of a Hollywood western, the militiamen surrounded the police station along Sudan's border with Chad, roughed up the chief and freed several of their members from jail.
The fact that militias trained and armed by the government are now emboldened enough to turn their guns on the government is a sign of trouble. It was government support of the janjaweed at the outset that ignited the fighting in Darfur that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced two million villagers.

For more, read: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/international/africa/18darfur.html

Only the best

2005-10-18T15:14:00.000+01:00

Transparency International has announced that Africa is the most corrupt continent in the world. Guess what lovely country in Africa was awarded THE most corrupt of the corrupt?

"Chad, however, with a score of 1.7, had the dubious distinction of not only being named the most corrupt nation on the African continent, but also the world’s most corrupt state."

Chad shares the bottom ranks with the likes of Turkmenistan, Burma and Bangladesh. Whose on top? Iceland, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore.

En route

2005-10-17T02:33:00.001+01:00

Destination: N'djamena, then Eastern Chad.
First stop: town in the southern US, which shall remain nameless

And so the next journey begins. I'm writing from a hotel room, which is certainly nothing new, unable to sleep after a long quest seeking a simple salad without the word "fried" or creamy ranch-blue cheese in the title. I've gone through yet another round of hellos and goodbyes, with more hellos to come, and I am just now allowing my mind to wander towards that ellusive Chad.

Yet another trip to Africa and I can't help but reflect on the journey I have traveled from Rwanda to Uganda, back to Uganda again, and now Chad. I have to wonder what is it all for and will I ever actually be able to offer more than I get out of this? I shall obstain from the philosophical digression on the merits and downfalls of aid work, but it somehow remains an unavoidable dilemma. But what I hope to do is provide some insight into yet another corner of the world that many can never imagine exists. The challenges will be many, not least of all, simple communication. No mobile phone networks this time around. Satellite internet? Not at this time. And unlike my colleagues across the border in Darfur who are increasingly targets for simply doing their work and have to obstain from being outspoken due to fear of being deported, arrested, abducted, and I dare say killed, I hope that the imaginary border that seperates Chad from Sudan will provide a little breathing room to be frank and upfront. But we will have to see about that.

Until Chad...

Republique du Tchad

2005-10-16T03:13:00.000+01:00

Here it is! Chad, also known as Tchad. You pick. I'll be working along the border with Sudan, including the town of Abeche, which is nicely labeled on this map.

Clashes Along the Chad-Sudan border

2005-09-28T11:22:00.000+01:00

CHAD: Government says Sudanese insurgents killed 36 herders in east
NDJAMENA, 27 September (IRIN) -
A group of unidentified armed men in military uniform crossed into Chad from Sudan early on Monday, killing 36 herders and stealing livestock, the Chadian government said.In a statement on Tuesday, the government said the attack took place in the village of Madayouna in the Ouaddai region of eastern Chad."The riposte by the armed forces stationed in the region was rapid," the statement said.Seven of the assailants were killed and eight detained, one of whom later died in detention, it added. Two Chadian soldiers were killed and five injured.

Eastern Chad has been gripped with tension since the Darfur conflict in western Sudan broke two years ago. Hostilities have repeatedly spilled across the border into the region where some 200,000 Sudanese refugees are living in camps.An aid worker in Adre, a border town near the site of Monday's attack, told IRIN that French troops in eastern Chad have recently stepped up patrols in the area after increased activity by armed groups on the Sudanese side.Chad President Idriss Deby, who initially took office in a coup in 1990 with the backing of Khartoum, has long had to perform a delicate balancing act in eastern Chad, the site of sporadic rebel movements over the last 15 years.Last April, Chad accused Sudan of backing a 3,000-strong rebel force operating on the border.Tuesday's government statement said the authorities had contacted the Sudanese embassy in Chad "to make known its worry about this grave situation and to invite the Sudanese government to take the necessary measures at its borders from where these insurgents came."A delegation of government ministers and military leaders left N'djamena for the border area on Tuesday afternoon.

It starts in Northern Uganda

2005-09-21T09:16:00.000+01:00

I am here in my final night on Ugandan soil. Tomorrow will be the official end to my current contract, coordinating a gender-based violence project in Northern Uganda, following nearly a year of doing research and advocacy in the region before that. My time in Africa has been concentrated in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (living in Rwanda and Uganda, traveling to Kenya and Tanzania) and I am just now starting to get my head around my next location: Eastern Chad. I think life is about to get interesting. As if it wasn't already...