Urgent humanitarian assistance needed for migrant workers displaced by clashes in Northern Chad

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Chad requires USD 1.2 million to urgently assist more than 950 migrants and Chadian nationals displaced by inter-communal fighting around two gold mines near the Libyan border at the end of December (27-28/12).

The Organization anticipates more will flee the ongoing instability, with estimates for the coming days of another 1,200 people, who are expected to travel south from Zouarke to Faya-Largeau. Recent clashes have led to at least 30 deaths, according to media reports, with another 400 injured, according to local authorities.

IOM is one of the few organizations present in Faya-Largeau. It offers community stabilization programmes and medical and psychosocial support to migrants in the town of approximately 20,000 which has traditionally served as a hub for Chadian nationals and African traders transiting for commerce, or on circular migration routes linking Chad, Niger, Sudan and Libya.

The community lacks adequate resources to respond to the humanitarian needs of the recently displaced migrants.

IOM officials say emergency funding will allow IOM to provide health assessments, assist stranded migrants and displaced Chadians to voluntarily return to their communities or countries of origin, as well as support authorities dealing with the emergency.

Chad is a key transit country on the northbound Central Mediterranean Route, as well as a destination country for many migrant workers. Since 2012, migrant workers from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal and Sudan, among other countries, have been drawn to gold mining areas in northern Tibesti.

Through all of 2018, IOM assisted 120 vulnerable migrants seeking the voluntary return to their countries of origin. IOM operates three Flow Monitoring Points (FMPs) to track displacement and migration trends in northern Chad. An average of 571 individuals transited through IOM’s Flow Monitoring Points in Faya-Largeau and Kalait daily in November 2018.

IOM operations are made possible through the support of the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union Trust Fund, IOM’s Global Assistance Fund and IOM’s Humanitarian Assistance to Stranded Migrants Fund.

Original source: IOM
Published on 11 January 2019