Global Overview 2011: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Chad

At the end of 2011, 126,000 people were still internally displaced in eastern Chad, five years after being forced to flee armed conflict between government forces and armed opposition groups, inter-ethnic violence over land and natural resources, or attacks by criminal groups known as coupeurs de route. Most IDPs were living in camps where they had limited access to livelihoods and continued to rely on the support of international humanitarian organisations.

While the conflict and violence had largely abated and no new internal displacement was reported in 2011, the lack of basic services and ongoing insecurity in areas of return prevented the majority of IDPs from returning to their villages of origin. Since 2008, only 30 per cent of all IDPs, or 56,000 people, had returned. For this reason, the government and the international community started to promote other settlement options besides return, including the conversion of remaining IDP camps into locally integrated communities.

Presidential elections were held in April 2011, and President Idriss Déby was re-elected for a fourth term in office, securing 89 per cent of the vote. The three main opposition candidates boycotted the election after their demands for electoral reform were not met. Despite being an oil producer, Chad ranked 183rd out of 187 countries in the 2011 Human Development Index, making it one of the least-developed countries in the world. It also ranked 134th out of 135 countries in the 2011 Global Gender Gap Report, an assessment of how well countries divide resources and opportunities between their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of those resources and opportunities. The overall situation in Chad was made worse in 2011 by food insecurity which affected more than 1.6 million people, a cholera epidemic of a scale not seen in recent times, and parallel outbreaks of polio and measles. Against this backdrop, 83,000 migrant workers in Libya returned to Chad after fleeing the war there.

The overall national response to internal displacement in Chad continued to be insufficient. In 2007, the government established a national committee to assist IDPs, the Comité national d'assistance aux personnes déplacées or CNAPD, and in 2008, it also set up the Coordination nationale d'appui à la force internationale au Tchad or CONAFIT to coordinate humanitarian activities with UN peacekeeping troops and humanitarian organisations. The impact of these bodies has been limited as neither has had the staff or resources that would allow them to provide assistance and facilitate durable solutions for IDPs.

However, the government has since undertaken a number of initiatives which could have a positive impact on the protection of IDPs if they are properly implemented and monitored. In 2010, the improvement of relations between Chad and Sudan enabled the deployment of a joint border security force and the establishment of a security office to facilitate humanitarian operations after UN peacekeeping troops known as MINURCAT withdrew from the country. The government also signed the N'Djamena Declaration to end the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups.

In 2011, the government ratified the Kampala Convention, signed an action plan with the UN to end the recruitment and use of children by the country's security forces, and signed a joint agreement with the governments of the Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan to strengthen economic ties by deregulating trade, building roads and establishing new flight routes. However, despite these welcome developments, by December 2011 the government of Chad had yet to enact national legislation to protect IDPs.

The response to the 2011 emergencies and the protracted situation of Chadian IDPs and refugees from Darfur and CAR has also been limited by a lack of international commitment, particularly in areas related to Chad's recovery from conflict. The CAP appeal for humanitarian funds for 2011 requested $535 million, but by December only 57 per cent of this sum had been funded. Several sectors of assistance remained seriously under-funded, including the education and protection sectors which were only funded at nine and ten per cent, respectively. The early recovery sector had not received any funding by December 2011, despite the intentions of the government and the humanitarian community to shift from relief efforts to recovery.

The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $25.5 million to respond to the problems of food insecurity, cholera and polio outbreaks, and the return of Chadians from Libya, making Chad the largest recipient of CERF funds in West and Central Africa in 2011.