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Crop Production Bureau (DPA) (Ministry of Agriculture)

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There was very little change in Chad’s food security situation between May and June. Harvests of flood-recession and 2006/07 off-season crops helped to some extent to improve grain availability for households in river valley areas. Thanks to grain surpluses following two consecutive surplus crop years (2005/06 and 2006/07), regular market supplies were able to keep grain prices level despite the onset of the lean period.

Regular food distributions in refugee and IDP zones helped normalize the food situation, with the volume of pre-positioned food supplies in these areas making for an encouraging food outlook. The current challenge for assistance agencies active in receiving areas for refugees and IDPs is to improve access to clean water and sanitary facilities and could partially explain the surge in certain diseases in these areas. However, many rural households in structurally deficit areas of Kanem and Batha and flood victims in the southern part of the country are still experiencing food access problems.

The first rains of the year slowly helped get the growing season underway in the southern part of the country, producing fresh pasture for grazing animals. However, heavy pressure by the human and animal populations on a relatively degraded area in the country’s eastern zone is further curtailing access to natural resources in general and land in particular, which is affecting the livelihoods of host communities and making IDPs increasingly reliant on humanitarian aid.

Food security in at-risk areas

Despite what, on the whole, was a surplus crop year, the food security of certain population groups in Kanem and West Batha, both of which are structurally deficit areas, and in Mandoul, Mayo Kebbi and Moyen Chari in the southern part of the country affected by flooding will deteriorate during the pre-harvest lean period. Some 102,609 residents of Kanem and Batha and 7,425 flood victims were classified as highly food-insecure by the members of the joint assessment mission organized by the Ministry of Agriculture in March of this year. These groups should benefit from the May 2 decision by the Action Committee for Food Security and Crisis Management to distribute seeds and set up a social marketing program (solely for residents of Kanem and Batha) beginning in June, to re-energize the 2007/08 growing season.

Food security of refugees and IDPs

World Food Program (WFP) relief operations for refugees and IDPs proceeded without any major problems despite what are still rather volatile security conditions in the country’s eastern zone, as well as in the south. These operations have recently been stepped up in anticipation of the onset of the rainy season, necessitating the pre-positioning of food supplies in operating areas liable to be cut off from the rest of the country (by impassable roads). These efforts to pre-position food stores, which are normally begun before the heavy rains begin, have already assembled enough supplies to cover 95 percent of needs for the next five months in refugee camps throughout eastern Chad. WFP is hoping to complete this operation before July 15. The swollen numbers of IDPs in the wake of attacks triggered by ethnic fighting and the ensuing panic has clearly had an impact on the pre-positioning of food aid.

Sudanese refugee population in eastern Chad

On the whole, the food situation of Sudanese refugees in the eastern part of the country is satisfactory. In fact, the general food distribution to refugees for the month of June was completed somewhere between June 9 and June 12 at all refugee camps, with more than 3,878 MT of provisions distributed to 228,900 camp residents. To some extent, compliance with the schedule for these food distributions has helped the refugees better manage their monthly food ration, making them an integral part of their coping strategies. However, continuing water shortages in certain camps are interfering with the optimal use of these food supplies.

Moreover, civil strife along the Sudanese border and the exclusion of certain refugees from relief operations are creating small streams of Sudanese refugees heading towards Gaga. The coordination office for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Chadian National Commission for the Accommodation and Reintegration of Refugees (CNAR) registered some 2,596 “spontaneous” Sudanese refugees over the period between January and May 2007, plus an additional 136 in June, with the count still ongoing. For the most part, these spontaneous refugees had settled along the border, away from the camps, remaining close to their native villages in order to have access to their fields and other natural resources. Their belated resettlement is due, in large part, to the deterioration in security conditions in and around their settlement sites. Most of these refugees are arriving in Gaga supplied with enough provisions to meet two or three weeks worth of food needs and generally receive assistance once the UNHCR/CNAR coordination office has completed its head count and registration formalities. There are concerns for the welfare of the latest wave of refugees due to their makeshift shelters, exposing them to the elements. However, no steps can be taken by relief agencies to provide them with needed materials for a proper shelter until the completion of all camp registration formalities.

Internally displaced population in eastern Chad

A 90-day food ration was distributed to all IDPs over the last three months. In addition, a 90-day seed protection ration has already been distributed to residents of the Kerfi, Adé, Allacha, Goudiang and Goz Bagar settlements and is in the process of being distributed to IDPs in other locations. This latter ration is designed both to ensure the optimal use of seeds and to enable prospective farmers to devote themselves to full-time farming activities.

More than 147 MT of provisions were transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Assongha region as part of an inter-agency agreement enabling WFP and ICRC to transfer food supplies back and forth. These provisions are scheduled to be distributed to some 15,000 IDPs at the Goz Bagar, Goudiang and Hiledye settlements as a 42-day seed protection ration.

A WFP team in the Salamat region distributed 117 MT of provisions to more than 5,000 recipients as a 60-day seed protection ration for IDPs at the Ideter, Badine, Arkouk, Maka and Ardo settlements. Thus, in the last three months, 3,612 MT of provisions, including grains, pulses, oil, salt and sugar, were distributed to a target group of 115,600 IDPs.

Access to water supplies and sanitation services is becoming increasingly problematic at settlement sites for IDPs and could partially explain the reported rise in rates of infectious diseases in certain settlements such as Kerfi, Adé, Koloma and Habilé. A number of mitigating measures have been taken to help close gaps in these services. UNICEF and its partners in the field are considering the option of hastily installing 80 boreholes equipped with hand pumps, including 60 manual and 20 automatic pumps. Efforts by Doctors Without Borders-France (MSF/F) to furnish drinking water to residents of the Koubigou, Gassiré, Koloma and Adé settlements using a dozen tank trucks making two trips a day each have eased the extremely heavy pressure created by the acute water shortage at these locations.

Yet another problem in the country’s Eastern Zone has to do with the need to ensure that the digging of latrines does not contaminate the water table in that area, particularly with the rise in the level of the water table in certain parts of Dar Sila threatening to raise it to a depth of less than two meters. Despite the relative improvement in the food situation of IDPs, residents of the spontaneous settlement in Ambaroka are facing a real problem getting access to food and non-food aid. Thus far, this makeshift settlement on the outskirts of the city of Goz Beida has received only government aid and is not included in current scheduled food distributions. The destitution of this group of IDPs has recently forced a first wave of 369 residents to leave the settlement for Koubigou in search of assistance.

A look at trends in conditions in the Sila department health district between epidemiological weeks 21 and 22 shows surges in the number of cases of certain infectious diseases such as acute respiratory syndrome (72 percent rise), acute jaundice syndrome (60 percent rise) and watery diarrhea (50 percent rise among children under five years of age). This rise in the incidence of infectious diseases could be attributable to several factors, including makeshift shelters and shortages of blankets in the midst of the rainy season, shortages of clean water, poor hygiene and limited sanitary facilities. The state of the water supply and sanitation services, which is clearly substandard at certain settlement sites for IDPs, could be another contributing factor. At the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) team, the following measures were taken in the face of the persistence of the virus causing jaundice syndrome (in many cases, transmitted by drinking water contaminated with human feces) despite chlorination efforts in an effort to halt its propagation:

- Mounting of a general hygiene promotion campaign (personal, environmental hygiene, etc);

- Regular follow-ups on reported cases by health professionals and home visits.

Central African refugee population in southern Chad

Conditions in the southern part of the country in the receiving area for Central African refugees are stable. However, security pressure from clashes between government troops and rebel forces in the northern reaches of the Central African Republic (CAR) is forcing area residents to seek sanctuary in Chad. Close to 81 refugees were transported from Bekoninga to Dosseye on June 7, including 17 children under five years of age.

General food distributions for the month of June went smoothly in all three camps in Goré (Amboko, Dosseye and Gondjé), where 275 MT of provisions were distributed to 27,244 recipients over the period from June 4 through June 9.

In addition to these general distributions, targeted distributions under the Nutrition Program provisioned by the WFP furnished 1,470 recipients with 7,242kg of foodstuffs as part of the maternal and child health component, 200 recipients with 750kg of foodstuffs as part of the therapeutic feeding center component and 322 recipients with 1,483kg of foodstuffs as part of the nutritional health center component.

Nutritional status of refugees and IDPs

Sudanese refugee population in Chad

Medical NGOs active in refugee camps in Iriba are reporting a new outbreak of diarrhea and a rise in global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates among children up to five years of age. According to one such organization, namely the International Medical Corps, the GAM rate in Amnabak was at 5.18 percent in May, compared with 4.7 percent in April. The severe acute malnutrition (SAM) rate for this same period was 0.28 percent. The findings