Chad, “Internally Displaced”

Eastern Chad has a recent history of extreme violence, in addition to the Janjaweed attacks, the area is threatened by rebel groups fighting Chadian and Sudanese armies on Chadian territory. Since 2004 over 260,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur crossed into eastern Chad. They live in 12 camps along the border. Over 85 per cent of them are women and children. The latest influx of refugees arrived after an attack on three villages in western Sudan in February 2008. Since April 2006 regular rebel attacks on Chadian villages in the border area of Darfur, have led to a spiral of escalating violence throughout eastern Chad. About 170,000 Chadians have been forced over the last three years to flee their villages, often leaving all their belongings behind. In January 2009 over 15,000 refugees from Central African Republic (CAR) have entered south-eastern Chad, following clashes between Rounga rebels and the national army of CAR. Twelve thousand of the refugees have settled in Daha (200 kilo metres from Chad’s border to CAR). Over 80 per cent of the refugees are women and children. The remoteness of these areas poses significant logistical challenges, particularly with regard to the rainy seasons.