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Chad: The internally displaced
Slipping between the cracks
by Ashley Gagné, JRS West Africa [30/12/2008]
“My friend, it is terrible. We are treated worse than our own animals; no fields, not enough food, water, and space. We cannot move about freely.
We are living in insecurity without identity cards, without minimal recognition. How can we leave these sites where we are surviving like the blind?" said a Chadian woman, let's call Pélagie, displaced by violence in the country’s east.
Pélagie is one of 26 million people worldwide who has fled her home due to armed conflict and taken refuge somewhere within her own country. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) like Pélagie often live without access to education, healthcare, and shelter. Yet they are not as protected under international mandates as refugees. While refugees are clearly blanketed under international conventions backed by the African Union and United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), IDPs are juggled between their own government and the international community.
“We could speak of IDPs as hostages of internal and external negotiations, manipulations, military recruitments and economic motivations. They are hostages of all actors who exploit the crisis situation, including even themselves”, said one JRS staff.
Though UNHCR’s core mandate does not mention IDPs, several resolutions have lead to its involvement with them. In the last 30 years, UNHCR has assisted in more than 30 IDP operations around the world. Under a “cluster approach” whereby different UN agencies are responsible for certain areas of assistance, UNHCR protects IDPs. However, national leaders are still primarily and legally responsible for meeting their needs.
Unfortunately, governments often lack the capacity or will to assist their citizens. For example, the Chadian State has not been able to adequately support the growing number of IDPs. Inter-communal conflict, cross border attacks with Sudan, and fighting between rebel and national forces have led to a rise in the number of IDPs from 40,000 in 2006 to 185,000 today.
Moreover, no governmental body in Chad is clearly delegated to protect them and no national legal framework exists to defend their rights. Civil society groups have played an important role in advocating the rights of IDPs. For instance, the National Committee for Assistance to IDPs (CNAPD) composed of civil society leaders and government ministries has provided aid due to the advocacy efforts of civil society groups in 2006.
Still a second inter-ministerial agency, the National Committee for the Reintegration of Refugees, also deals with IDP issues. Hence, confusion surrounds which group is the focal point for protecting IDPs.
IDPs in eastern Chad report three major challenges: accessing humanitarian aid, integrating locally or returning home in security, and working towards peace and reconciliationibid. While they express appreciation for free healthcare, education, and access to water that aid agencies and the CNAPD provide, they claim to receive less assistance than refugees.
For example, food aid delivery is reportedly insufficient and delivered irregularly. In the Dar Sila region, no food distributions have taken place since July except in Gassiré and Kerfi sites where high levels of malnutrition were confirmed.
In response, the World Food Programme conducted a needs assessment to determine which sites are in most need. JRS encourages the study and hopes that future distributions will prevent instead of respond to malnutrition as a result.
Regarding security, waves of spontaneous returns have occurred in eastern Chad during 2008. Yet the roots of insecurity in the region need to be further addressed on local, national, and international levels for returns to be sustainable. The lack of administration and basic services in the area worsens matters. Favorable conditions for return would involve disarmament of civilians, the presence of protection forces, re-establishing the justice system, and re-building infrastructure and services. In many cases, such structures did not exist before the crisis due to radical poverty which began long ago.
Some of the displaced return home to see if security has improved and to work their land which many claim is more fertile than the little land available in the sites. 90% of IDPs are famers but JRS staff say that few probably have access to fields.
Meanwhile, sharp increases in food prices also threaten food security. Scarce resources shared between host and displaced communities trigger tensions making daily life difficult. Inter-communal conflict is compounded by banditry and impunity. However, traditional methods of conflict resolution pre-existed the crises.
In the sub-prefecture of Koukou Angarana, a committee of local authorities and leaders was formed to resolve disputes between nomads and farmers. Unfortunately, the rebel attack last February on the capital, N’djamena, hampered progress as many committee members fled the village. Still, such dialogue committees could be effective in other regions of the country.
In this context, JRS, with UNICEF, the Chadian Ministry of Education, and other NGOs, is working to promote a culture of peace and tolerance, supporting 21 schools in IDP sites and host communities in the eastern cities of Goz Beida and Koukou. Education faces many challenges. In the framework of the 2008 Consolidated Appeal for Chad, which supports NGO and UN projects, education was only funded at 14%.
Nevertheless, JRS has provided school materials, teacher trainings and other education support to more than 160 teachers and 14,000 students. For the first time since the crisis in eastern Chad began, displaced children have completed a full school year.
Moreover, last summer, JRS piloted an adult literacy programme in IDP sites where people expressed a great need and desire for such. Beneficiaries have already taken initiatives to continue the project which is needed for some 6,000 persons. The programme’s continuation and success now depends upon securing adequate financial support.
***
Sources Cited
“How AU fails the continent’s IDPs”, http://www.monitor.co.org, Patrick Mutahi, 27 August, 2008.
“Internally Displaced People, Questions and Answers”, UNHCR/P. Smith, September, 2007.
Mission des OSC sur la problematique des déplacés internes de l’est du Tchad, Juillet, 2008.
Development and Humanitarian Action in Chad: Facts and Figures Snapshot Report, OCHA Chad, 11 November, 2008.
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