December 10, 2006: The fighting in eastern
Chad has led to about 50,000 refugees being cut off from food supplies. In the
last few weeks, some 550 tons of food has been stolen by bandits and looters.
That's enough food to feed 20,000 people for a month. Some of it will be
consumed by the rebels, but the rest will be sold to merchants, or bartered for
weapons, fuel, vehicles or other goods. The UN fears that more of its convoys
and warehouses will be looted.
December 9, 2006: UFDD rebels returned
to Biltine, and attacked the army troops there, and apparently drove them
out. Several hundred more casualties resulted. The rebel columns are coming
from Sudan, where they have government supported bases.
December 8, 2006: The army returned to
Biltine, fought the rebels, caused about 200 casualties, and the rebels fled
after losing about twenty percent of their vehicles. Thirty rebels were
captured.
December 7, 2006: Several hundred UFDD
rebels, in about a hundred vehicles, rolled into the eastern town of Biltine
(500 kilometers northeast of the capital). The few soldiers who were there,
fled.
December 6, 2006: Nearly 30,000 refugees from
Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) have fled to Cameroon, where the UN
is setting up a refugee camp. Many of the refugees are nomads who have been
increasingly subject to attack by groups of rebels, or bandits who have been
hanging about looking for potential victims.
December 5, 2006: The fighting over the
eastern town of Guerada, over the last four days, apparently caused some
350 casualties (about a third of them fatal). Several rebel leaders were among
the dead. The rebels took the town, then government forces arrived and
tool it back. The fighting then moved to the outskirts of the town, before the
rebels fled towards the Sudan border.
December 4, 2006: In the east, UN relief
workers have fled three towns, and six of the twelve refugee camps the UN
maintains in the area. A handful of relief workers were left behind, but about
half the 220,000 refugees in eastern Chad are now on their own.
