Aid agencies suspend work in eastern Chad because of insecurity
8/10/2008 17:17
Rising banditry across eastern Chad has forced several aid organizations
to temporarily suspend their work, the United Nations humanitarian wing said
yesterday.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
said several of the aid agencies have become victims of banditry lately, with
more than 120 separate incidents reported against such organizations since the
start of the year.
An estimated 37,000 internally displaced persons (IDP)
living in Dogdore and Ade could be without healthcare, food assistance, water
and sanitation services unless the security situation improves, OCHA
warned.
Heavy rainfall in eastern Chad has also damaged roads and limited aid
workers' access to people in need, exacerbating the effect of the worsening
insecurity.
UN humanitarian agencies are already involved in flood relief
efforts in southern Chad, where at least 40,000 people, particularly in and
around the town of Sarh, have been in need of outside assistance since a month
of torrential rains lashed the region starting in late July.
The OCHA is
sending a mission next week to southern Chad to study possible ways to set up an
early warning system for natural disasters such as floods.
Meanwhile, Chad's
First Lady Hinda Deby Itno took part in Monday's opening ceremony in the
national capital, N'Djamena, of a three-day UN workshop on gender-based violence
faced by IDPs and refugees in eastern Chad.
The workshop, organized by the UN
Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (known by its French acronym,
MINURCAT), was attended by senior government officials, foreign diplomats,
representatives of international organizations and members of civil
society.
MINURCAT has been tasked by the Security Council with protecting
refugees and IDPs across eastern Chad and north-eastern CAR, which have both
been beset by widespread violence and civilian displacement in recent
years.
Xinhua
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