Amnesty Research Mission to Chad: 20 May - June 2, 2010

Photo: Gaga Refugee Camp

With every major human rights disaster, lives are ripped apart in so many ways.  Thousands; or tens, even hundreds of thousands of people are killed and badly injured; countless women and girls are raped; and homes and livelihoods are destroyed.  And always there is massive displacement.  People flee in search of safety.  Some escape only a few kilometres away; others cross borders and become refugees.

The crisis in Darfur and Chad has unleashed unimaginable levels of displacement.  Within Darfur itself more than 2 million people have fled their homes but remain trapped inside Darfur.  Around 250,000 Darfuris have been able to cross the border into neighbouring Chad.  Many have now been refugees here for 5 or 6 years.  And the terrible violence within Chad has forced close to 200,000 Chadians to flee their homes.  They live in precarious danger in IDP (internally displaced people) sites scattered throughout the east of the country.

Today we visited Gaga refugee camp, about 90 minutes to the east of Abéché.  Gaga Camp was set up in 2005 and is now home to around 20,000 refugees from Darfur.  We met with many of the camp leaders and with other inhabitants of the camp.

What came through above all else was a sense of despair.  Refugees feel trapped here. When they go outside the camp they face the serious risk of being threatened, beaten or raped.  We gathered many testimonies from refugees who have been attacked when they leave the camp. And very clearly  it is women and girls who suffer that most, as they leave the camp frequently in search of firewood, water and to go to nearby markets.  Outside the camp they are targeted for attack by armed bands in the area.  Among many accounts we heard about a 13-year old girl who was badly beaten just 2 days ago while out with a group of women and girls seeking firewood.

And sadly, refugees feel there is very little protection on offer.  While a new Chadian police force has been deployed in eastern Chad under UN auspices, with a specific mandate to provide protection to refuges and the internally displaced, the experience of refugees at Gaga is that the police are simply not interested in ensuring their protection.  They consistently remind the refugees that their mandate is limited to only 2 or 3 kilometres around the perimeter of the camp – which goes nowhere near as far as women need go in order to find firewood.  The bottom line is that they feel abandoned and forced to fend for themselves; as they have for years.

Beyond security concerns, there are many other challenges.  Water is in extremely short supply.  Tents have worn out and replacements are not readily forthcoming.  Food distribution is never enough.  
And we have heard a great deal about education.  While there is a well-functioning system of primary education in the camps there is almost nothing beyond that.  And after many years in refuge there are a growing number of young people who have finished primary school but have nothing to move on to; nothing to look forward to.  We have repeatedly heard the concern that these are precisely the children, between the age of 13 and 17, most likely to be recruited as child soldiers.   As one young man told me, he can understand that – he knows that his future is not here in the camp; neither do others.  He holds on to the hope that he might qualify for an overseas scholarship to continue his studies but he knows that others go off to join rebel groups.

The future is not here.  Where will it be?  Clearly the refugees of Gaga have the right to look ahead to a future of safety and possibilities.