EASTERN CHAD: USAID ASSESSMENT OF INTERNALLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 NDJAMENA 000050

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FRO AF/C, AF/SPG, PRM, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W
USAID/DCHA FOR MHESS, WGARVELINK, LROGERS
DHHA/OFDA FOR KLUU, GGOTTLIEB, AFERRARARA, ACONVERY, AMALEY
DCHA/FFP FOR WHAMMINK, JDWORKEN, MLOUSTAUNOU
DCHA/OTI FOR HUBER
USAID/AFR/WA FOR CGARRET
STATE/AF/C FOR MASHRAF, S/CRS JAVANCE
STATE/PRM FOR GPARKER
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH
USEUCOM FOR USAID WANDERSON
NSC FOR TSHORTLEY
USUN FOR TMALY
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER
KHARTOUM FOR KALMQUIST, KLAUER
ROME FOR RNEWBUERG, HSPANOS
NAIROBI FOR JMYER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI CD
SUBJECT: EASTERN CHAD: USAID ASSESSMENT OF INTERNALLY
DIPLACED COMMUNITIES, SITREP I


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1. Summary: The USG humanitarian assessment team in eastern
Chad is investigating reports of rising numbers of internally
displaced persons. On January 17 and 18, the team visited
two IDP sites and refugee camps in the Farchana area of
Assounga Departement. Recent arrivals at the sites are from
villages near the Chad-Sudan border and report increasing
attacks on villages by Sudanese janjaweed since last
November. While specific figures on internally displaced
persons (IDPs) are difficult to ascertain, it is well known
that IDPs and refugees vastly outnumber the host communities.
Insecurity in the area has limited humanitarian presence and
response to the IDP situation to date. Humanitarian
assistance is needed; however, agencies note that any
assistance must be carefully planned to assist everyone and
mitigate tensions between the host communities and new IDPs
and refugees. End Summary.

USG Assessment Team
--------------


2. A USG humanitarian assessment team is currently
investigating reports of increasing numbers of internally
displaced persons in eastern Chad. The team is composed of
representatives of USAID,s Offices of U.S. Foreign Disaster
Assistance (OFDA),Transition Initiatives (OTI),Food for
Peace (FFP),as well as of the European Command and of the
Department of State,s Bureau of Conflict, Reconstruction and
Stabilization, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Ndjamena. On
January 18, the team traveled to Goz Bagar and Goundiang IDP
sites, approximately 60 kilometers south of Farchana in the
Assounga Departement. On January 17, the team also visited
the Gaga and Farchana refugee camps.

Operating Environment
--------------


3. Humanitarian agencies are challenged by a difficult
operating environment in eastern Chad. The U.N. Phase IV
security status precludes a large humanitarian presence in
the area, and the Government of Chad declared a state of
emergency in eastern Chad in late November, invoking the
right to deny travel permits for humanitarians to travel in
the area. Despite the presence of armed militias and bandits
in the area, U.N. agencies and relief organizations have not
been specifically targeted. The Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reduced international staff
in Farchana area by half due to Phase IV security measures.
UNHCR has taken measures that would allow nearby refugee
camps to be managed for ten days by the refugees themselves
in the event of the total evacuation of international staff.


4. Access to the Goz Bagar and Goundiang IDP sites is
further limited in the rainy season due to fast and high
running rivers. Currently, only the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF)
are providing emergency relief supplies and medical care,
respectively, to recent arrivals at the two sites. Also in
the area are the camps of Gaga, Farchana, Treguine and
Bredjing housing more than 77,000 Darfur refugees. There is a
small humanitarian community overall, and no formal
coordination structures existing except at the refugee camps.

IDP Numbers
--------------


5. The number of IDPs in eastern Chad is difficult to
ascertain and varies depending on the organization that
provides the information. UNHCR and the U.N. Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),and U.N.
Children,s Fund (UNICEF) generally agree that the total
number of IDPs in eastern Chad is approximately 112,000.
However, ICRC and the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) place the

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number at around 75,000, claiming that a first wave of IDPs
that were displaced last year and were recently re-displaced,
are being double counted. That is certainly the case
regarding some of 12,000 IDPs that the team visited in Goz
Bagar and Goundiang. Approximately 4,000 IDPs have recently
been displaced for a second time, having originally moved
last May to Borota town from nearby villages along the
Chad-Sudan border. According to UNHCR, attacks on villages
began in the spring of 2005 following the withdrawal of
Chadian military from the area during a rebel advance on
Abeche. Displacement and attacks subsided during the rains
as rivers became impassable. However, when the rains ceased
in late September, attacks and displacement dramatically
increased. UNHCR noted that non-registered Darfur refugees,
who had lived nearly three years in communities close to the
border, have been arriving in Gaga camp in increasing numbers
since November.


6. Humanitarian agencies note that host communities are not
much better off than recent arrivals, and certainly the IDPs
and refugees are overwhelming host populations in terms of
numbers (for example, at Goundiang there are 800 local and an
estimated 2,000 new arrivals). Assistance should be
carefully considered so as not to introduce inequalities and
exacerbate tensions between the newly arrived communities.
The team forecasts a growing number of IDPs, with
displacement of the majority ethnic group, Massalit, along
the border south of Adre, unless security improves. Agencies
note that as the number of IDPs and refugees increase,
resources, such as firewood and water, will become
increasingly stretched. Specific population data has been
difficult to obtain up to this point; the team will continue
to pursue the information.


7. While the majority IDPs in eastern Chad are non-Arabs,
the assessment team also received reports of a limited number
of displaced Arab Chadians. According to UNHCR,
approximately 500 Tama (Arab) IDPs arrived in the Mabrone
Sous Prefecture north of Farchana. This report highlights
the complexity of the IDP situation in eastern Chad, where
displacement is caused by a multitude of factors. The team
will follow up on this report and provide further information
in future updates.

Sources of Conflict
--------------


8. The assessment team received consistent reports from IDPs
in this region that they fled their villages along the Sudan
border in the wake of attacks by Sudanese Janjaweed on camels
and horses. Attacks generally occurred in the early morning
hours and in some cases resulted in deaths. Reports of
deaths ranged from 2 to 13 people. One man said that
attackers killed his father and brother in front of his eyes.
He buried them before fleeing for his own safety. The key
government official of the Hadjer Hadid Sous Prefecture,
Assounga Departement, told the team that assailants burned
more than eight villages near the border, causing the
residents of many other villages to move en masse fearing
attacks. According to the official, one of the three zones
of Borota Sous Prefecture, comprising 18 villages, is
completely empty of Massalit people, the primary target of
the assailants. The number of villages that have been burned
is estimated at up to 70.


9. IDPs noted that the absence of Chadian administive
officials, both military and civil servants, had contributed
to the insecurity. A group of IDPs told the team that the
chief of Bakota Canton (chef de canton) asked the village to
contribute money to pay for a militia to provide protection.
The head of the militia group was a Sudanese Arab, not known
by the Chadians. The village refused to pay, saying they

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would not accept to being defended by Sudanese as they were
Chadian. Their village and several others were burned days
later. The chief of the canton had already fled the area.
(Note: This information is noteworthy in that it tracks with
similar events that occurred in Darfur, particularly in 2004
when villages would pay Janjaweed not to attack. If payment
was not forthcoming, the villages were burned. End note).
There was a consistent perception that non-Arab tribes were
being targeted in the attacks and that the goal was to
clean the area, of
black, people. IDPs noted that the neighboring villages
occupied by Ouddai and Mimi (Arab groups) were not attacked
suggesting an understanding with the Sudanese assailants.
IDPs in Goz Bagar and Goundiang noted that Chadian Arabs did
not participate in the attacks.


10. Some humanitarian interlocutors believe that there is
still a chance for local reconciliation in this particular
part of eastern Chad because the attacks have come from
outside the country and Chadian Arabs are not directly
implicated (unlike in Goz Beida where reports reaching the
team indicate that Chadian Arabs have been involved in
attacks against Dajo and Massalit ethnic groups). However,
without any local administration in place, there is little
confidence that any sort of peace could be embarked upon and
certainly none of the IDPs will venture home without a
guarantee of security.

Humanitarian Needs
--------------


11. The degree of humanitarian needs of the recently
displaced varies according to the severity of the attack on
their villages and the degree to which the fleeing families
were able to transport their valuables with them or to spirit
their goods out in risky return visits to their villages.
Some people escaped from villages under attack by armed men
on horses or camels that razed all that remained. Other
villagers left in advance of attacks for precautionary
reasons, organizing truck or donkey transport to carry sacks
of food, seed, and household effects. The USAID team met
with displaced families from both categories. While all
families lost some resources, including access to farmland,
USAID representatives met families in need of immediate
humanitarian assistance, as well as others who appeared able
to cope for several months. An effort should be made to
provide support to the vulnerable of both categories to
mitigate tension over stretched resources.

-Food Security-


12. In the areas of Hadjer Hadid Sous Prefecture visited by
the team, the food security condition of the newly displaced
was mixed. Many households visited had clearly been able to
carry substantial amounts of food (some huts had up to 9
sacks of millet weighing 90 kilograms each) and other
household items, such as cooking pots, with them. Other
households stood in stark contrast with no mats and only a
pot or two, and no food. These families said they were
surviving thanks to the generosity of the host population.
Nearby markets are full of vegetables, meat, and other
products, but minimal amounts of grain and other basic food
staples were available. USAID/OFDA partner Catholic Relief
Services/Secours Catholique de Development (CRS/SECADEV)
reports that, despite positive national harvest reports, the
harvest in this area was below normal due to poor rains.
Based on a recent U.N. interagency assessment in the area,
WFP is planning a general food distribution, but most likely
not until March. Until then, the IDPs will have to get by
with their own food stocks and assistance from host
communities. Some of the IDPs who arrived before the rains
in 2006 planted gardens along nearby dry river beds (wadis)

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which still contain water less than one meter below the
surface.


13. In looking at possible response options, it will be
essential to keep in mind the timing of the agricultural
season. By May, land for planting must be identified, either
in host communities or back in the villages of origin, and
seeds and tools support should be in place. If this fails,
IDPs will be dependent on food rations at least until the
following annual harvest in fall 2008, approximately 18
months away.

-Water/Sanitation )


14. Currently, most IDPs fetch water from beneath nearby dry
riverbeds. The quality of water undoubtedly is suspect as
animals and humans commingle in the wadis at least nine
months of the year. Currently, there are no latrines in the
two IDP sites. ICRC is having two wells dug near Goz Bagar.
A U.N. interagency assessment team visited the area a day
before the USG team and reported that only one of the four
existing water pumps in Goundiang was operational.


15. Unless there is clean water (and sensitization on using
it),proper sanitation, a steady supply of nutritious and
varied foods, and reduced exposure to the cold nights,
children will soon become vulnerable to diarrhea, upper
respiratory infection, malnutrition, and other illnesses. If
not corrected, the situation will become acute as IDP food
stocks deplete and the annual hunger-gap period begins in the
summer. UNICEF champions its low-technology, hand-drilled
boreholes which private Chadian contractors construct in less
than one day near wadis. In locations distant from
high-water tables, UNICEF funds Oxfam to do mechanized
borehole drilling with Oxfam,s two rigs. UNICEF has made an
emergency appeal of $4.5 million to carry on its program for
the next three months in locations of the newly displaced.

-Health and Nutrition-


16. MSF is providing a mobile clinic to Goz Bagar three
times a week and once a week to Goudiang. The assessment
team observed MSF in the process of evaluating a tetanus
patient in Goundiang. A full briefing by MSF was not
possible during the day,s visit. A brief conversation with
MSF, however, revealed the usual list of illnesses, including
upper respiratory infection and diarrhea. MSF works at the
referral hospital in Adre and also has a health clinic in
Hadjar Hadid. In the summer, malaria will be a severe problem
due to the plethora of wadis in the area. ICRC is building a
permanent health center at Goz Bagar that will serve both the
local and IDP population.


17. According to WFP and UNICEF, global acute malnutrition
rates in eastern Chad were not above emergency threshold
levels prior to the upsurge in displacement. However, no
agency has surveyed recent arrivals in Goz Bagar or Goundiang
in order to obtain a baseline or to monitor the impact of
displacement on nutrition levels. MSF is planning to conduct
a nutritional survey at nearby refugee camps and host
communities. MSF should be encouraged to survey arriving IDPs
as well. As food stocks deplete and IDP numbers increase as
forecasted, a nutrition problem is foreseen. Preparations
should begin now to build capacity and awareness of the need
for community-based therapeutic care and hygiene promotion
programs.

-Relief Commodities-


18. In IDP areas along the border in Assounga and Dar Sila
departements, ICRC is distributing non-food items (NFIs) for
approximately 40,000 displaced persons. The NFI family kits

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include two blankets, one piece of plastic sheeting, two
mats, two water buckets, and soap. The Government of Chad is
reportedly distributing some emergency items through the IDP
fund established by the Ministry of Solidarity but has not
been coordinating with the humanitarian community on
targeting the assistance. Blankets are particularly in
demand to protect families from the cold nights. Still, all
humanitarian agencies have told the USAID team that more
items are required now and are also needed to meet future
needs given the current fluid situation.

IDP Protection Issues
--------------


19. The story that emerges from Massalit IDPs who fled from
Borota Sous Prefecture is that they will not be returning
soon due to lack of security on the border. IDPs reported
that tensions and insecurity had been building in Borota for
months before their displacement. Although the Janjaweed had
harassed the IDPs in November firing shots in the air and
stealing livestock, they stayed in their villages. The
recent attacks resulted in deaths, convincing many people to
leave.


20. The team came away convinced that unless the security
situation on the border south of Adre changes sufficiently,
more displacement along the border and further inland may be
ahead. No Chadian military are present to deter further
attacks. A government official in Goz Bagar worried that the
newly displaced, as well as villagers in his area, might be
displaced again as an attack recently occurred only 30
kilometers away. A similar sentiment was echoed by a Chadian
official in Farchana. The team's bottom line assessment is
that the IDPs seen today, due to the fear they expressed and
the amount of personal goods some of them transported, are
here for a while.


21. Also of concern is the vulnerability of children to
recruitment as soldiers by armed groups. The UN is anxious to
develop activities for children so as to discourage this
likelihood, although there is already evidence produced by
groups like Human Rights Watch that indicate this is already
happening. U.N. staff in the area have observed young
children carrying weapons.


22. ICRC and the Chef de Canton of Goz Bagar worried about
potential problems that could emerge between host villages
and the IDPs. IDPs are currently settled on private
agricultural land and the government wants to move them to
another site. Finding a site with water is a challenge and so
far one has not been identified. Agriculture land and access
to water and health services are issues that should be
anticipated.


23. UNHCR was planning an Age Gender Development Mainstream
(AGDR) survey to the area visited today last December.
However, the survey was not conducted due to the withdrawal
of international staff and Phase IV security measures.

Coordination
--------------


24. Currently little coordination of assistance to IDPs
exists in the Assounga Department. UNHCR, the lead agency
for IDPs, told the team that U.N. agencies will institute the
cluster coordination system to address the IDP emergency in
eastern Chad. UNHCR noted that lead cluster agencies will
work to attract relief organizations to address the sectoral
needs of IDPs.

Conclusion
--------------

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25. The findings detailed above constitute the first part of
a two-week humanitarian assessment mission, with the team
traveling to several additional locations in the coming days.
The team anticipates that the complex and differing nature
of the displacements in the geographic locations may lead to
different response options. More concrete recommendations
for the USG response to the situation will be forthcoming
upon the completion of the mission.
WALL