February
23, 2007: The Chad-Sudan border is becoming a playground for bandits, and
neither Sudan nor Chad has the troops, or the will, to impose order. There is
talk of sending peacekeepers, but the region is truly in the middle of nowhere,
far away from the kind of logistical support a peacekeeping force would
require. Even journalists have a hard time reaching the area. Misery, however, has
no problem getting here, and thriving.
February
19, 2007: Rebels attacked Fada, the northern home town of Chadian
president Deby. The army garrison in Fada repulsed the raiders, but suffered 63
dead, 43 wounded and 34 captured. The raiders suffered higher casualties, and
apparently attacked in an effort to obtain food and other supplies.
February
17, 2007: Aid agencies are unable to protect their food convoys by hiring local
tribesmen as guards, or paying bribes to local bandits. Some of the convoys are
getting raided anyway. There are too many bandit gangs running around to keep
track of them all, and pay off enough of them to protect the food, and other
aid.
February
15, 2007: Officials from Chad and Sudan met and agreed not to support rebel
movements in each others territory. But this does not deal with the problem of
banditry and tribal disputes. Western Sudan has become a madhouse of refugees,
bandits and disorder.
February
12, 2007: There are now over 100,000 Chadian refugees living in refugee camps
along the Sudan border. Refugees from Sudan have been moving into the area for
nearly four years, and the international relief agencies, and all their food,
equipment and cash, followed. This has changed the economy along the border.
There is more banditry, because there is more to steal, from the greater number
of people in this semi-arid region. There are now nearly half a million
Sudanese refugees in Chad.
