Insecurity threatens aid operations across Chad

By Tim Large

LONDON (Reuters) - Violence in Chad's capital could halt aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees in the east of the country, including many from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, humanitarian groups said on Monday.

Fighting in N'Djamena at the weekend in a rebel push to overthrow President Idriss Deby grounded aid flights, choked fuel supplies and forced many relief groups to suspend operations. The rebels broke off the assault overnight.

"At stake here is the entire aid effort, not only for 300,000 refugees from Sudan but also 300,000 internally displaced Chadians, and then everything we do for the populations that are hosting them," Gareth Owen, emergencies director for Save the Children, said by phone from the eastern town of Abeche.

Even before rebels battled into the capital, aid groups had struggled to provide food, clean water and healthcare to a steady flow of refugees from conflicts in Darfur and Central African Republic.

A spillover of violence from Darfur has also uprooted tens of thousands of Chadians, putting further pressure on scarce resources in the semi-desert area. Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing rebel movements in their countries.

Abeche is the major aid hub in the east, but Owen said the whole humanitarian network in Chad depended on planes flying in and out of the capital.

The rebel advance has forced the EU to suspend deployment of its mission to protect civilians in eastern Chad.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said insecurity could disrupt food shipments for more than 400,000 displaced people.

"If it goes on like this it will be a serious problem because the pre-positioning (of food supplies) has to be done before the rainy season in June, and it's pre-positioning for the whole year," said Stephanie Savariaud, a WFP spokeswoman in Dakar.

Aid agency CARE International said it had stopped all operations in N'Djamena and all but essential work in the east while it assessed the situation.

World Vision said on Sunday its office in N'Djamena had been attacked, although staff members were safe.

"At this point, the roads are blocked so we have no possibility of leaving the city," said Levourne Passiri, the charity's national director. "Security at the moment is very difficult."

(For more information on humanitarian issues visit www.alertnet.org)