Govt pins hope for east on food aid

Local officials in eastern Chad have appealed to the government for protection of civilians there, and the government has elaborated plans to improve its efforts to send food aid, but national plans to provide security remain vague, observers say.

Almost daily attacks on remote, desert villages in eastern Chad have driven more than 100,000 people from their homes over the last year, with more than half fleeing during the last six months of 2006, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates.

One of the only local officials to speak out about what is happening in the region, Abdoulaye Affadine, representative of the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) in Goz Beida, on Saturday called the situation a “tragedy without precedent” in Chad.

Thousands of displaced people are sheltering in and around Goz Beida and some of the biggest attacks by rebels have taken place there.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby has pledged that the central government will provide four billion CFA (US$8 million) to buy food and other aid for 150,000 displaced people in the isolated region.

Deby, who is also facing an armed rebellion led by former army loyalists dissatisfied with his rule, has nonetheless remained vague about plans to provide a credible armed security force to defend the unmarked 900km desert border between Chad and Darfur.

Speaking to Radio France Internationale at the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa on Tuesday morning, Deby said he blamed Sudan for all the violence. He said he is still waiting for the AU and the international community to step in to provide security.

“Bashir carried out a genocide in Darfur and now he is taking the genocide to Chad while the international community remains silent,” Deby said.

Conflict analysts and human rights watchdogs point to a much more complex local dynamic of violence between the mosaic of ethnic groups in the region, many of which straddle the border with Sudan.

“For the Chadian government, the most important thing they could do would be to provide security,” said Theo Murphy, a Chad researcher with the London-based human rights group Amnesty International (UK). It released a report this week calling for more attention by the government to violent attacks in eastern Chad.

“The first thing people ask for [in eastern Chad] is security. They also ask for food and medicine, but they wouldn’t need those things if they had security. The failure to do something about this has reached unacceptable levels,” Murphy said.

Marian Ali Moussa, the head of the government committee charged with assisting displaced people, confirmed that people in the east are an “object of attention” for the government, but like Deby blamed cross-border attacks by the Janjawid - an Arab militia from Sudan - for the displacement.

“These compatriots who count in the thousands were thrown into this situation by the brutal actions of the Janjawids and the mercenaries of the regime in Khartoum. They know cruelty,” Moussa said.

Distributions of food and non-food items will be made to some 150,000 people in the region of Ouaddai, Waddi Fira and Salamat, the Chadian government has said. International aid workers based in the region have confirmed that the distributions have started, but criticised the way the aid is being targeted.

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