The scale of the humanitarian situation in eastern Chad continues to be immense as a result of the volatile and unpredictable nature of the crisis, brought about by continued multiple threats from within and outside the country. Internally, the country has experienced a deterioration of the socio-political environment over the past years and national authorities continue to face challenges in tackling the increasing security concerns. On the international side, developments in the neighbouring countries of Sudan (Darfur) and the Central African Republic (CAR) have also impacted negatively on Chad.
Continued insecurity plagues the region with increased incidents of rebel and banditry attacks on humanitarian aid workers coupled with reports of human rights abuses such as sexual and gender-based violence, mainly targeted at women and children.
The country is host to a large refugee population comprising 234,000 Sudanese refugees as of January 2006 that fled the Darfur war since 2003, and 45,000 refugees that fled insecurity from northern CAR and crossed over into southern Chad. Furthermore, the escalation of violence in eastern Chad has resulted in the displacement of 53,000 Chadians. Likewise, it is expected that the number of CAR refugees will rise to 60,000 given the deteriorating situation in northern CAR.
In 2007, given the increased level of insecurity in Darfur and eastern CAR, the return of refugees is hardly expected. Instead, influxes of new refugees are expected in the East and South as well as the continued and increased displacement of Chadians. The competition for resources among all these groups living on the same small territory is likely to further exacerbate tension between them.
Despite funding shortfalls and the prevailing insecurity, humanitarian operations during the year have focused on providing basic assistance to newly arriving refugees and internally displaced persons as well as to older refugee caseloads. The provision of assistance has led to the reduction of morbidity, mortality and malnutrition rates, with an average Global Acute Malnutrition rate of less than 5%. However, despite the ongoing humanitarian assistance, the situation remains bleak with major challenges foreseen while carrying out humanitarian response. The recent escalation of violence and the deteriorating and fluid security situation threaten to close humanitarian space thereby jeopardising humanitarian operations, particularly in the East. The worsening of the humanitarian crisis underscores the need for sustained and increased humanitarian assistance for the affected populations.
In this regard, the overall strategy developed for humanitarian response will mainly focus on responding to immediate emergency needs as well as working towards a transitional approach to create a mode of self-reliance, sustainability and local capacity building. The priority humanitarian actions for the next 12 months therefore consist of:
· Provision of coordinated life-saving assistance in emergency situations to refugees and internally displaced persons in order to support improved livelihoods and adequate security;
· Enhancing support and increasing access to basic social services to refugees, internally displaced persons and host populations;
· Integrating humanitarian activities into longer-term development assistance to promote self-reliance and integration of host communities;
· Reinforcing security for humanitarian actors.
The humanitarian situation remains critical and in order to allow for the full implementation of identified strategies and projects, the Consolidated Appeals 2007 is appealing for US$170.7 million.