At least 528 people have been killed, 600 injured and more than 7,000 forced to flee their homes because of tensions between communities in Chad, especially in the south of the country, from the beginning of the year until October; estimates that significantly exceed last year’s casualty figures as the country faces severe flooding that threatens to destroy precisely the crops these groups are fighting for.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Chad warns of this «upward curve of violence» with respect to the 400 or so deaths in 2021 at this point.
The south of the country accounts for 56 percent of the 36 violent incidents identified, counting for example the 200 deaths from incidents in May in the province of Tibesti. The south of Chad is more temperate, and its vegetation is more abundant, which has ended up attracting pastoralists from the desert areas of the northern Sahel.
This situation has led to incidents such as the one that occurred in the province of Guéra, on a transhumance route that runs through the center of the country. There, according to the UN, about twenty people died as a result of clashes between Mubi farmers and herders around the town of Mangalmé.
The worst incident, however, occurred between May 21 and 22 in Tibesti, when an altercation between two miners from the Arab and Tama communities degenerated into an explosion of inter-community violence that left at least two hundred dead.
Meanwhile, the country is exposed to the threat of torrential rains and the annual flooding of the Chari and Logone rivers that have inundated 18 of the country’s 23 provinces.
Thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed, livestock swept away and many residents forced from their homes by the rising waters.
In the capital, N’Djamena, a quarter of the city has been virtually submerged, according to an OCHA situation report published on November 11. Nearly 150,000 people displaced by the rains are in collective reception centers identified by the authorities.
Following the floods and the onset of the dry season marked by cold, dry winds, humanitarian actors fear a resurgence of diseases such as malaria, cholera and other waterborne illnesses.
«This situation is likely to cause many diseases, potential epidemics and may cause disruptions in the care of the chronically ill,» warned the World Health Organization (WHO) about what awaits the African country in the coming months.
