International Medical Corps Helps Sudan, Chad, and Central African Republic Through a Turbulent February
Sudan, Chad, and Central African Republic (CAR), are a triad of violence, turmoil, and unrest in Africa’s heartland. Conflicts in these countries are almost never isolated, but felt collectively, as unrest in one country is likely to circulate across neighboring borders. The result is a triangle of chronic violence where people escape one country’s conflict by fleeing to another, often only to fuel tensions wherever they resettle.
In each of these separate, but interconnected states, International Medical Corps provides a small slice of stability in the form of medical care, nutritional support, psychosocial counseling, and water and sanitation. By laying the groundwork for community infrastructures, International Medical Corps helps to insulate these fragile countries from ongoing frictions and new crisis outbreaks.
“We are currently operating emergency health and nutrition programs in Sudan, Chad, in Central African Republic, and hopefully soon in neighboring Cameroon,” says Kara Gaye, International Medical Corps desk officer for central and northern Africa. “This is a regional crisis that needs a regional response.”
This February proved to be particularly turbulent for the region, raising its already-simmering pot to the boiling point. In Chad, a long history of pitched battles with government forces peaked, as rebels raided the capital, N’djamena, and came perilously close to the presidential palace. With French support, the soldiers retreated, but more than 100 people, many of them civilians, were left dead and thousands more were force to abandon their homes for refuge in neighboring nations.
The domino effect within the region is strong, and these rebel forces are likely to migrate into the lawless terrain of northeastern CAR. Unable to secure power in N’Djamena, the rebels may try to police this region as they could muscle little resistance. Already suffering from internal attacks where villages are raided, women are raped, and many are killed, an invasion by the Chadian rebels would likely only compound the misery of CAR’s citizens. With mobile medical clinics servicing this volatile region, International Medical Corps must not only work to repair the damage wrought by the coup in Chad, but prepare for the potential environmental shift in CAR.
Just two weeks after the rebel attack on N’Djamena, the Sudanese government started an aerial and ground assault campaign on villages in West Darfur, triggering a mass exodus of Sudanese refugees into neighboring Chad. The UNHCR estimates that 20,000 of the area’s 30,000 citizens have crossed, with more than ten thousand resettling in Birak, an area located approximately 42 miles from the International Medical Corps-operated Guereda Hospital.
One of the most resource-poor regions in the world, the desert just inside the border of eastern Chad has long been a receiving ground for Sudan’s displaced. Approximately 240,000 Sudanese reside in Chad in 12 refugee camps. As the closest hospital to these camps, International Medical Corps is able to reach out to these people through the Guereda facility. Now that this porous border is once again feeling the impact of a yet another spike in violence from its neighbor, International Medical Corps staff in Chad has worked quickly to support the latest population shift.
As part of a UNHCR screening mission to address the needs of the thousands of cut-off refugees in Birak, International Medical Corps traveled for three hours over sandblasted roads before reaching two sites where an estimated 1,500 Sudanese sought asylum. Several had to be treated for injuries or other serious health problems. Nine were transported to Guereda to undergo surgery. Among those requiring operations was a 12-year-old girl whose leg needed to be amputated after developing gangrene. Others suffered bullet wounds and shrapnel injuries. Their home villages in ruins and their belongings lost, most Sudanese refugees do not want to go back.
“Our team spoke to the refugees and they are determined to stay in Chad despite the Chadian government’s position not to accept new refugees. They have witnessed violence, death, and destruction. International Medical Corps will address their most urgent needs,” says David Majagira, International Medical Corps Country Director in Chad.”
With more arriving each day and hundreds more from CAR knocking at Chad’s door, International Medical Corps is currently preparing a response to the crisis in eastern Chad. International Medical Corps’ medical team at Guereda Hospital will continue to treat all seriously ill and wounded refugees referred from Birak. If the refugees are allowed into existing International Medical Corps-supported camps, the teams are prepared to expand existing medical and nutritional support services to meet the wave of Sudanese refugees entering Chad.
As this violence-and-escape pattern between Chad, CAR, and Sudan continues to stress host populations and leave refugee communities with little to no access to basic health care, water, food, or sanitation, the need for International Medical Corps and the services it provides deepens. Moving beyond this tumultuous February, International Medical Corps is prepared and dedicated to protecting the residents of this fragile triangle.