Chad

Background
In February 2008, rebel forces launched an attack on the capital of N’Djamena, forcing thousands to flee their homes outside the capital and to neighboring countries. As many as 50,000 people crossed into Cameroon alone. Inside Chad, many of the internally displaced were without food and water. The resumption of attacks in Chad came as the country was already struggling with the influx of some 240,000 people from the Darfur region of Sudan, just to the east, which began in 2003. Most of these Darfurian refugees have lost nearly everything—family members, friends, homes, farms, cattle. Having endured the journey into one of the most resource-poor environments in the world, they are extremely vulnerable to malnutrition, dehydration, and disease. Meantime, the Chadian host communities themselves are experiencing a catastrophic strain on their natural and social resources as a result of the huge and sudden increase in local population.

What IMC Is Doing
In response to the recent conflict, International Medical Corps (IMC) is establishing mobile medical clinics to address the needs of the internally displaced, in addition to continuing its primary health care and nutrition services to over 60,000 Darfurians (approximately 25 percent of the total refugee population) in four camps—Kounoungo, Mile, Am Nabak and Gaga —and the 100,000 Chadians in the surrounding host communities. Services include: curative care for the sick and injured, immunizations and other preventive care for children and pregnant women, and nutritional assistance to malnourished children and women of child-bearing age.

Importantly, International Medical Corps builds the training of health professionals into any emergency response in order to transfer the knowledge and skills to locals so they will be able to care for themselves in the future. This is why IMC is working to build health care capacity in eastern Chad by rehabilitating and upgrading the camps’ closest hospital, Guereda, in which IMC constructed a laboratory to service the region.  The program also includes primary health care and nutrition training for health professionals and refugees, increasing the camps’ health support network by creating better equipped medical practitioners, community health works, and traditional birth attendants.

While there is reason for hope, without a dramatic change in the level and nature of international assistance, eastern Chad could be consumed by ever worsening violence and suffering. The only realistic option remains to move the camps further from the border, closer to additional natural resources, and dedicate significant funds to development projects benefiting the entire affected population.