• Here are my notes from my interview with Roland Van Hauwermeiren, Program Director of Oxfam; I asked Roland to tell me about some of the challenges he and Oxfam (and by extension all aid workers) are facing:

• Sun Dec 9, 2007 8:05am EST
• LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The European Union must speed up the deployment of a force on a U.N. mission to protect several hundred thousand refugees and the aid workers caring for them in eastern Chad, a leading British aid agency said on Sunday.
  
  An EU force of up to 3,700 soldiers, around half of them French, is due to deploy soon to the border with Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
  
  But some EU countries have refused to make up a shortfall in vital resources, and the launch of the mission in the former French colony -- originally mooted for early this month -- has been delayed.
• "We're very concerned by the severe deterioration in security across the east of the country in the past week," said Van Hauwermeiren. "We're already struggling to meet people's basic needs and this outbreak of fighting could mean even more pressure on limited resources.
  
  "If we are forced to suspend our work in the camps and areas of displacement in eastern Chad where we provide clean water and sanitation, the people living there will suffer severe consequences."
  
  French Defence Minister Herve Morin said Last week that EU peacekeepers should start deploying in eastern Chad late this month or early in January, although they lack key equipment.

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• Deby's Minister of State for Mines and Energy, General Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, called the attack on Adre "a declaration of war" by Sudan.
  
  Rebel spokesman Henchi Ordjo said Adre had been "liberated" by the rebel forces. He said the northern town of Faya Largeau had also been captured. There was no independent confirmation of this.
• Rebel spokesman Henchi Ordjo said Adre had been "liberated" by the rebel forces. He said the northern town of Faya Largeau had also been captured. There was no independent confirmation of this.
• Chad was named the most corrupt country in the world, along with Bangladesh, in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005.

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• Mon Feb 4, 2008 3:40pm EST
• By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun
  
  N'DJAMENA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council urged countries on Monday to support Chad's government against rebels, opening the way for foreign aid to help thousands who have fled a two-day assault on the capital.
• Pickups crammed with soldiers patrolled the streets and army helicopters flew overhead after two days of clashes which left hundreds wounded. Bodies and abandoned vehicles littered the capital of the oil-producing, central African state.
  
  In New York, a non-binding U.N. Security Council resolution urged the international community to support Deby, giving a green-light to France to answer Chad's appeals for foreign aid.
• Timane Erdimi, leader of one of the groups in the rebel coalition, said they had pulled back to face pro-Deby fighters from Sudan's Darfur region, who were racing to the president's aid across some 800 km (500 miles) of scrub from the east.
• Aid workers in eastern Chad said a large column of fighters from the Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had passed the eastern town of Abeche and was rushing to N'Djamena.
• Before withdrawing late on Sunday, rebel fighters had gone from house to house in some areas, telling occupants to leave because they planned to attack again. Thousands of refugees poured across the Ngueli bridge over the Logone-Chari river into Cameroon after dawn, carrying belongings and children.
  
  Some were hurt, including a girl with a bullet wound in the back. Local Cameroon authorities estimated some 15,000 people had fled across the river to the small border town of Kousseri.
• Chad says the rebels, who include some of Deby's former allies and family members, are armed by Sudan. Khartoum denies this and accuses Chad of supporting the five-year uprising in its Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died.
  
  Chad's army said it repulsed an assault by Sudanese army troops and rebels on the frontier town of Adre on Sunday. Sarkozy ordered French fighter jets to survey the border area with Sudan to ensure there is no "foreign incursion".
• As the fighting subsided in N'Djamena, soldiers rounded up leading opposition members, including opposition coalition spokesman Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, family members said.

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• Tue Feb 5, 2008 5:20am EST
• By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun
  
  N'DJAMEMA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - France rallied the international community on Tuesday in support of Chad's President Idriss Deby after he survived a fierce attack on the capital N'Djamena by rebels seeking to topple him.
• Chad's former colonial ruler France, after initially saying it was staying neutral, sponsored a non-binding statement adopted by the United Nations Security Council on Monday, which urged countries to support Deby's government against the rebels.
  
• Taking advantage of the end of the fighting, thousands of refugees carrying children and belongings streamed out of N'Djamena on Monday over the river border bridge into Cameroon.
  
• The rebel attack, which Chad said was backed by neighbouring Sudan, forced the European Union to delay the deployment of a peacekeeping force to eastern Chad to protect thousands of refugees from the war in Sudan's Darfur region. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said this was a temporary measure.

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• Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:42am EST

   

               

      

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• By Stephanie Hancock
  
  BANDALA, Chad, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Under the blazing desert sun, the charred remains of the village of Bandala in eastern Chad lie scattered.
  
  Once home to hundreds of people, Bandala is now nothing more than scorched earth and broken pots, littered unceremoniously across the sand.
• Bandala is one of dozens of villages that have been attacked in a wave of inter-ethnic violence pitting Arabs and black Africans that has displaced 120,000 civilians in eastern Chad. At least 70 of the villages attacked have also been torched.
• The British aid agency Oxfam is now warning that attacks against the local population must not be allowed to reach the levels seen in neighbouring Darfur, where over 200,000 Sudanese have died in four years of political and ethnic conflict.
• DOUBLE CRISIS
  
  In the nearby town of Goz Beida, the displaced have been arriving in droves.
  
  The town has a population of 5,000, but the arrival of both Sudanese refugees from Darfur and, more recently, displaced Chadians means some 50,000 people are now competing for the same scarce resources.
• Several camps for displaced Chadians have sprung up in the valleys around Goz Beida over the past year.
  
  One of them is Gassire. Two months ago this was a quiet village - now it is home to 12,000 hungry and scared people.

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• Sun Feb 3, 2008 5:36pm EST
• N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Troops loyal to Chad's president struck back at rebels besieging his palace on Sunday and the government said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces in the east that it called "a declaration of war".

• On the far eastern frontier, the army said it had beaten back a ground and air attack against Adre by a mixed force of Sudanese army troops and allied rebels and militia.

      

  Deby's Minister of State for Mines and Energy, Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, called the attack on Adre "a declaration of war" by Sudan.
• Sudan's government denied the accusations from its neighbor that it had backed the offensive by an alliance of Chadian insurgent groups, who denounce Deby as corrupt and dictatorial.
• The rebel assault, the second to hit the Chadian capital in almost two years, sent France and other foreign governments scrambling to evacuate their nationals from the oil-producing central African country, which has a history of wars and coups.
• Chadian officials blamed Sudan for the fighting, saying Khartoum was trying to sabotage the imminent deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force to eastern Chad that is tasked with protecting thousands of refugees and aid workers.
• Widespread looting was reported across the city.
• Aid group Oxfam said it evacuated its international staff from the capital and said the fighting could hamper humanitarian efforts for half a million people displaced in eastern Chad.

• France condemned the rebel assault, along with the African Union and the United States, but said it was staying "neutral".

      

  But one rebel leader, Timane Erdimi, accused the French government of continuing to prop up Deby, a former French- trained helicopter pilot who came to power in a 1990 revolt.
• The rebels failed in their last attempt to seize the capital in 2006. They say Deby, who won elections in 1996, 2001 and 2006, has squandered the country's oil resources, which are being developed by a U.S.-led oil consortium.

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• Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:01pm EST
• N'DJAMENA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Aid agency Oxfam urged the international community to tackle rising violence in eastern Chad before it becomes "another Darfur", ahead of a Security Council meeting on Thursday to decide on a peacekeeping force.
  
  Ethnic conflict and a simmering rebellion in Chad's east have displaced tens of thousands of people and hampered efforts to aid a flood of refugees from Sudan's western Darfur region, where a four-year conflict has killed more than 200,000 people.
• The Security Council was due to meet on Thursday to discuss a proposal to deploy a mission to protect civilians and respond to humanitarian challenges in eastern Chad.
  
  Oxfam called on U.N. member states to make financial and logistical preparations to deploy peacekeepers this month, should the Security Council give its approval on Thursday.
• With violence blocking efforts to establish decent camps and provide clean drinking water, Oxfam said diarrhoea, cholera and hepatitis could spread among thousands of displaced people.
  
  "In some of the areas where we work, you've got 12,000 or 15,000 people and not a single latrine," said Van Hauwermeiren. In the northeastern province of Dar Tama, traditional rivalries are turning into a major conflict, as groups become better armed and more numerous.

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• President Idriss Deby's government, which accuses Sudan of supporting the Chadian rebels, called on EUFOR to secure the porous eastern border with Darfur.
  
  But EUFOR's commanders have said its mandate is to protect the refugee camps and not engage the warring factions in eastern Chad unless civilians are threatened.
  
  "The Chadian government supports the deployment of the European force, EUFOR, on its territory and hopes its presence will really help to strengthen security on the frontier with Sudan," said a statement from Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, posted on the presidency Web site on Monday.
  
  Chad has recently threatened to expel Darfuri refugees, saying their presence is destabilising the region.

• Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:00pm EST
• DAKAR, Feb 18 (Reuters) - European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday must increase diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire in Chad to prevent a major humanitarian crisis, British charity Oxfam said.
  
  Some 500,000 people, including refugees from Sudan's western Darfur region and Chadians displaced by war and ethnic violence, are sheltering in camps in eastern Chad, but a surge in fighting has hampered aid and delayed the deployment of EU peacekeepers.
• Many aid organisations evacuated foreign workers after a rebel assault on the Chadian capital N'Djamena two weeks ago and are operating on a skeleton staff. Oxfam said supply routes to the camps had been closed and fuel supplies for vital water plants were down to two weeks.
  
  "We have all the elements for a huge humanitarian crisis rapidly developing in Chad," said Nick Roseveare, Oxfam's director for West Africa. "Europe must act rapidly before things get worse."
• Oxfam said the camps in eastern Chad were unable to cope with a fresh wave of thousands of Darfur refugees, fleeing fresh violence.
  
  Chadian President Idriss Deby's government, which accuses Sudan of supporting the Chadian rebels, has threatened to expel the refugees, saying their presence is destabilising the region.
  
  Deby declared a state of emergency on Thursday, granting his government exceptional powers to censor the media, search people and property, and tightly regulate all movement around the landlocked, central African state.
  
  European peacekeepers resumed their deployment last week, which was briefly suspended following the Feb. 2-3 battle for N'Djamena, but the rebels have said France's strong support for Deby has made EUFOR a military target.
  
  French troops make up the majority of the 3,700-strong force. (Reporting by Daniel Flynn, editing by Mary Gabriel)

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• 16 April, 2007 - Published 16:12 GMT

   

  Oxfam appeal for Darfur and Chad

   

  	Millions of people have been made homeless by fighting

  Oxfam is making a big appeal for humanitarian aid to Darfur and neighbouring Chad, where millions of people have been made homeless by fighting. The international aid agency wants to raise US$10m for what it calls 'the world's greatest humanitarian crisis'. Anu Anand reports:
• Oxfam says the United Nations has only received a quarter of the funding it needs to help some four million people in Sudan's Dafur region and in neighbouring Chad, who are now so dependent on humanitarian aid, they need it to stay alive.

  It says malnutrition rates are close to emergency levels and is calling on the public to donate money for clean water, medicine and sanitation.

  At least two hundred thousand people have been killed and two million displaced during the four year conflict between rebel groups and the pro-Sudanese Jangaweed militia.

  <!-- end_story -->The Oxfam appeal follows a joint-venture by the United States Holocaust Museum in Washing DC and the online mapping service, Google Earth, to halt what they see as genocide.

• Source: Oxfam

  Date: 11 Feb 2008
• 
   Oxfam warned today that its aid effort in eastern Chad is three weeks away from total shut down when it will be forced to turn off the water for more than 100,000 people. Fighting in the capital N'djamena over the weekend has cut supply lines going to the east, where 470,000 refugees and displaced people are dependent on humanitarian aid. The agency is calling on the UN and donors to open up an airlift of aid and alternative land link to get the aid through.
• We have around three weeks of stock that will allow us to keep our operations going in eastern Chad, but our top priority is to be able to rotate our staff to keep the program going,' said Mr Hewett.

• Two-thirds of Darfur's population are now living in 'temporary' camps as refugees or internally displaced peoples,' said Andrew Hewett, Executive Director, Oxfam Australia. 'We cannot turn our back on these people,' he said. 

  Oxfam has evacuated international staff from the capital but is keeping staff in the east to continue its operations. They are delivering life-saving water operations and they are stretched to full capacity, working around the clock.

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• 8 February 2008

    

  Water will be turned off for more than 100,000 unless urgent action taken by the UN and donors.

• OXFORD, ENGLAND — Oxfam International warned today that its aid effort in eastern Chad is three weeks away from total shut down when it will be forced to turn off the water for more than 100,000 people. Fighting in the capital Ndjamena over the weekend has cut supply lines going to the east, where 470,000 refugees and displaced people are dependent on humanitarian aid. The agency is calling on the UN and donors to open up an airlift of aid and alternative land link to get the aid through.

   

  “If we don’t get more fuel for the water pumps and fresh people in to run the aid effort, we will be forced to turn off the taps for 110,000 people within the next three weeks at best. We are calling on the UN and donors to organize an air lift from neighboring Cameroon and a reliable food and fuel supply line in order to keep providing clean water and humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced Chadians,” said Nick Roseveare, Regional Director for West Africa.

• Three years ago there was just desert, now there is a camp housing 14,000 people. Oxfam has been working in Djabal camp since March 2004.
  

  With its ordered rows of huts and tents, a bustling marketplace, mosques, schools and health centers, huge water tanks gleaming in the bright sunlight, Djabal camp in eastern Chad looks like any other village carved into the arid central African desert. Barely three years ago, there were only donkeys and the occasional herder seeking respite from the scorching sun under the shade trees that now provide cover for huddled groups of men.
  
  But now there are more than 14,000 people living in the camp, the vast majority women and children who fled with only the clothes on their backs and the buckets at their feet, desperate to escape the violence that has choked Sudan’s western Darfur region since fighting erupted in early 2003.

• Mornadjali Mjetobay, a 27-year-old Oxfam public health promoter from the southern Chadian town of Sarr remembers what the camps looked like before Oxfam arrived.

  “When we first got here (in March 2004), the water points were very dirty, and animals were sharing the water with the people which made it very easy for people to get sick,” she said.
  
  “Now everything is much better. We are teaching the women how to cover their basins and their buckets to keep the water clean, too.”
  
  Djabal, attached to the Chadian village of Goz Beida, is one of twelve camps lining the border between Chad and Sudan, delineated neither by language nor culture, nor marked with border guards or immigration officials.
• 
  “People came here with nothing, only the basic essentials they needed to survive,” said Mornadjali. “Most of them walked here, maybe they came with their animals but a lot of them died on the way.”
  
  Despite the difficulties, the Darfur refugees have settled into some semblance of ordinary routine. There are six schools in the camp, and there is always a pick-up football game going on somewhere.

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• Oxfam Press Release –  03 February 2008   

     

  Oxfam evacuates aid workers from Chad capital

     

   

                

     

    

     

      

   

  Oxfam has evacuated its international staff from its N’djamena office, following the latest upsurge in fighting in the capital.

   

  “We had no choice, but to evacuate our staff from N’djamena were the situation has become extremely insecure. Some of the evacuated staff will work from Dakar to support teams continuing to provide life saving humanitarian relief to refugees and internally displaced people in the east of the country”, says Raphael Sindaye, acting regional director for West Africa.
  
  Oxfam still has its field teams in eastern Chad who continue to supply aid to more than 100,000 people.
• 
  The security situation remains very tense and uncertain. “The movements of our staff have been limited, but we are continuing to deliver our programs in Goz Beida and Goz Amir in Eastern Chad,” adds Sindaye.

• There are nearly half a million people displaced in Eastern Chad. The majority of them are refugees from the Darfur conflict. Oxfam aid effort has been reaching more than 100,000 people with clean water, safe sanitation, food and public health promotion.
  
  

   

  Listen to an interview with Ana Damasio, Oxfam Media Officer, one of our staff members who was evacuated today to Gabon.

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• The ENOUGH Project 

     

   

  The ENOUGH Project works to stop and prevent genocide and mass atrocities by promoting peace, providing protection to victims and those at risk, and punishing perpetrators of mass violence. ENOUGH does this by raising awareness of ongoing crises, stoking activists to call for change, and joining forces with policy makers to push through long-term change.

   

  Our goal is to turn ENOUGH into the “intel chip” of the anti-genocide. To achieve this we’re crafting and vetting communications strategies that will engage supporters and empower actions. We’re currently helping ENOUGH overlay an online photo album on a map to illustrate the lives of people affected by the genocide and violence in Sudan. We’ve also mapped out the anti-genocide network and sympathetic organizations and publications so ENOUGH can better target messages and outreach.