Making a Difference in the Triangle of Violence and Displacement

By Ben Hemingway, IMC Senior Desk Officer

Washington, D.C.--During the last four years, more than 200,000 Sudanese have fled into neighboring Chad, escaping the ongoing violence in Darfur. In Chad over 50,000 routinely flee increasing attacks in the east, some crossing back and forth into the Central African Republic (CAR). From there tens of thousands have escaped into Sudan and Chad amidst growing insecurity and chronic poverty.

Additionally, in all three states combined, more than two million people are now displaced within their own country; the majority, about 1.8 million, in Darfur, the western part of Sudan.¹

Photo by Ben Hemingway

Young refugees who fled violence in Darfur for eastern Chad, which is itself plagued by political instability and armed conflict.

Collectively, Chad, Sudan, and CAR find themselves bound together in an interlocking humanitarian tragedy--one that constitutes one of the world's single largest concentrations of displaced people.

IMC is working with these populations in Chad and Sudan, where we provide lifesaving health and nutritional support to refugees, the internally displaced (IDP), and the conflict affected local populations. This month, IMC will start operating in the extremely remote and underserved Vakaga Province of CAR which borders the active conflicts in Chad and Sudan, and is also beset by an ongoing rebellion and rampant banditry.

Through extensive experience in Chad and Sudan, IMC is well prepared to provide critical assistance throughout this triangle which has been plagued by decades of political instability and armed conflict. Now a transnational exodus of civilians and combatants in all directions is destabilizing the region, leaving vulnerable populations without access to even the most basic resources.

IMC will be the sole aid agency in an extremely volatile and dangerous area of CAR that is flooded with internally displaced people. For the first time in months, if not years, these populations will receive badly needed medical assistance where the state services fell silent decades ago. CAR’s internal challenges have become increasingly entangled in the regional troubles of its neighbors Chad and Sudan.

Photo by Dr. Guy Yogo

Nutritionist Abdon Chimalamungo measures the circumference of a child’s arm at an IMC clinic in the village of Birao in the Central African Republic.

Providing such humanitarian assistance to refugees and the displaced in a region of perpetual cross-border violence is a challenge of enormous scope for any aid organization. IMC has recognized that the key to making a difference is developing a regional approach to first serve those most proximately affected. Initiating a community level dialogue will help establishing a bulwark against continued violence.

The refugees from Darfur, Chad, and CAR are not only perceived as an economic burden, competing for scarce resources and services with the local population. Indeed, they are also treated as a security threat. The rebellions active in all three countries operate across these vast tracts of uncontrolled borders, utilizing these remote areas to regroup and resupply those still engaged in the fighting at home. These groups often loot villages for needed supplies, thereby triggering yet another wave of refugees. Chadian rebels, fighters from CAR, and armed groups from Darfur have found safe havens across the border from their homeland - often enjoying open or tacit support from the neighboring regime.

In each of these isolated and fragile areas, IMC provides a small slice of normalcy in the form of medical care, nutritional support, psychosocial counseling, access to safe water and the reconstruction of community infrastructure. The services provided by IMC also signal to those who fled across the border to Chad and Darfur or are displaced within their own country that when they choose to being to return home, IMC will be there to help them restore their lives in their native villages.

Photo by Dr. Guy Yogo

This husk of a school in northeastern CAR was burned down by government troops and rebels, who destroyed five villages in this remote region of the country earlier this year.

We know that humanitarian assistance by itself will not stop the fighting and the violence. But it is a critical part of a larger plan to bring peace to the area. When the international community begins to pursue a badly needed regional solution to these interlocking regional conflicts in Chad, Darfur, and CAR they can count on IMC - because we are already there.
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¹ Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, iDMC, Global Statistics and UNHCR