Most of the 500,000 refugees and displaced people in eastern Chad continue to receive basic humanitarian assistance despite the recent upsurge in fighting and the evacuation of many aid workers from the area, yet the situation could soon deteriorate, said officials.
“Stocks of food, medical supplies, water or fuel for water pumps, should last between two to four weeks at most locations,” Eliane Duthoit, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Chad said in a statement on 8 February.
“We must ensure that before that time, we are able to provide at least minimal assistance, which will enable people to survive”, Duthoit, who is part of a UNs ‘skeleton team’ that has remained in Chad, said.
Most NGOs also currently only have skeleton teams in Chad, many of whcih are comprised of national staff.
The UN is reportedly set to start daily flights to Abeche, the regional humanitarian hub in the east, from Marour in northern Cameroon. Humanitarian flights to the east were suspended when fighting between government and rebel forces started in early February in Chad’s capital N'djamena.
Tens of thousands of civilians fled N'djamena crossing into nearby Cameroon although the rebels have since left and the city is now reportedly calm, with Air France set to resume commercial flights there.
Yet land routes to the east may not re-open so quickly for food and other assistance, humanitarian officials warned. There are reports of fighting continuing in the centre of the country where aid convoys must pass from Cameroon.
“The uncertainty is a real concern,” Catholic Relief Services spokesperson Lane Hartill told IRIN on 11 February. “We currently have good reserves of food stocks but they will need replenishing soon.”
Oxfam issued a statement on 8 February saying its aid efforts are three weeks away from “total shut down”. “Water will be turned off for more than 100,000 unless urgent action is taken by the UN and donors,” it said.
Duthoit, from OCHA, said aid workers have not been targeted in the recent fighting and she expected that normality would be restored. “As soon as this is the case, I encourage humanitarians to return and hope this will be within the coming two weeks, or the humanitarian situation will no longer be under control”, she said.
Yet aid groups are getting mixed signals from Chad’s government on how they should proceed. Local government officials in Abeché have recently called on relief workers to return to the area but on 11 February Chad's prime minister Nouradin Koumakoye reportedly demanded that the international community remove all 240,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad or the government would do it by force.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
