Chad Asks for Help to Support Millions of Refugees (Darfur and Arab Militias)
Murad Makhmudov and Noriko Watanabe
Modern Tokyo Times
Two million international refugees and internally displaced people need humanitarian assistance in Chad. Yet, this nation is blighted by poverty and internal dissent. Therefore, the leader of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, is requesting international support.
Deby said – in an apologetic tone, “I am urging my people, who I know live in poverty, to accept, receive and protect refugees and displaced persons who come to our country in deteriorating health situations caused by conflicts in neighboring states.”
Ethnic and religious violence blights the Sahel, the Lake Chad region, and parts of West Africa. Equally, the failed state of Libya in North Africa enabled greater access to military arms by various Islamist groups. Therefore, with instability in Libya continuing, this enabled Islamist terrorist groups to expand further.
Voice of America reports, “Chad’s 2 million refugees come from several neighboring countries besides Sudan. They include people fleeing Boko Haram atrocities and violent conflicts between fishers and herders in Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger, as well as Central African Republic citizens who fled violence as fighting erupted in their country in 2013.”
Lee Jay Walker says, “Since the death of President Idriss Déby Itno, who sought to repulse the military forces of the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), uncertainty abounds. Hence, despite the semblance of stability under the Transitional President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who heads the Transitional Military Council (Conseil Militaire de transition – CMT) with the backing of trusted generals who supported his late father, the political question remains.”
It is believed that by the end of 2023, approximately 600,000 people will have fled Sudan. However, this might be an underestimate.
Al Jazeera reports: “UN officials warned in June that the fighting in Darfur has taken an ethnic dimension, with the RSF and allied militias targeting African communities.”
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (Volker Türk) notified the Human Rights Council in Geneva about the ongoing violence.
Volker Türk said, “In West Darfur, ethnically motivated attacks perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of non-Arab civilians primarily from Masalit communities.”
Ravina Shamdasani (UN rights office spokesperson) recently said: “Horrifying accounts of armed ‘Arab’ militia backed by the Rapid Support Forces killing people fleeing El Geneina on foot” have been provided to the rights office by people fleeing to Chad.
The BBC reports – concerning the actions of Arab militias in the past conflict in Darfur – that Arab militias (known as the Janjaweed) “… were accused of widespread atrocities and ethnic killings, described as the first genocide of the 21st Century.”
Chad needs international support – and the same concerns the Sahel and Lake Chad region because ongoing wars, ethnic massacres, Islamist terrorism, food insecurity, and other ills – are mounting.
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