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Chad-Darfur Emergency
The UN refugee agency is battling the elements, massive logistics obstacles and daunting security challenges to help hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. The agency is racing to assist more than 170,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad and move them to camps away from the volatile Chad-Sudan border before heavy seasonal rains cut off access to this remote region. Across the border in strife-torn Darfur itself, UNHCR has started working to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese in camps.
The refugees and displaced people have fled fighting that erupted in Sudan's western region of Darfur in early 2003. More than 170,000 Sudanese have fled across the border to neighboring Chad and an estimated one million have been displaced within Darfur, where militias have reportedly killed, raped and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
UNHCR became operational in Darfur in June following a request from the UN country team for the refugee agency to share its expertise in protection, camp management and site planning. UNHCR opened an office in Nyala on June 6 and one in El Geneina on June 22 and plans to establish a presence in El Fasher. UNHCR teams have begun evaluating existing camps for displaced persons to improve the layout and design and have begun training governmental camp managers in protection and the rights of displaced people.
In Chad, more than 118,000 refugees have been moved away from the volatile border area to refugee camps inside the country. Cross-border raids by marauding militia continue unabated, underscoring the urgency of relocating the refugees at a safe distance from the border.
The refugee agency has made huge strides, reaching a remarkable pace of moving more than 1,500 refugees per day to camps. But tens of thousands of refugees are still scattered along a 600-km stretch of the remote border zone, living in makeshift shelters of branches and straw suffering scorching heat during the day and freezing night-time temperatures. Fleeing in panic, many of the refugees arrived with little or no belongings. At first, generous local communities in Chad shared what they could with the refugees, but their resources are running out.
UNHCR staff must drive for days over vast distances to locate the scattered groups of refugees, register them and organise convoys from the border zone to camps. Blinding sandstorms slow the relocation movements to a crawl and make finding the refugees even more difficult. Yet speed is crucial, because relocation convoys to bring the refugees to camps in the interior of Chad must be completed before the rainy season, which has already begun in earnest in the southern part of the region. The rains will make the sandy roads impassable and prevent refugees from moving away from the border as well as prohibiting aid from getting in.
While the looming rainy season threatens assistance for the refugees, the lack of water in this inhospitable region in the dry months is proving to be a major challenge. Lack of water is hampering the identification of suitable sites for refugee camps. Deep wells must be dug to supply the camps and in some cases water has to be trucked in from nearby villages. UNHCR and its partners are scouring the area for additional campsite possibilities.
The UN refugee agency is mounting a major emergency response in Chad, pumping in relief items, staff and logistical capacity from around the world into this remote and arid region. Emergency teams have been deployed and additional local staff hired. Emergency airlifts are bringing in thousands of metric tons of tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, soap and other relief items.
But there is still a long way to go to overcome the daunting challenges faced by the refugees and displaced people and by those helping them in eastern Chad and across the border in Darfur.