Timely grant from US enables IOM to send aid for over 1000 displaced migrants in western Chad

Timely grant from US enables IOM to send aid for over 1000 displaced migrants in western Chad

Western Chad: (Tuesday, March 13, 2012) After receiving aid from the US, the aid workers of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) has become capable of sending a road convoy carrying aid for over 1,000
displaced migrants, most of them unaccompanied children, stranded in the remote village of N’Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad.

The US embassy in Chad has agreed to provide funding for transportation and family reunification assistance. The money will also enable IOM to buy essential non-food items such as blankets, soap, sleeping mats, buckets, jerry cans, hygiene kits, toothbrushes
and medicines for the migrants.

The Koranic pupils, known as Talebs, and their teachers, the Marabout, fled the eastern Nigerian villages of Dougouri, Folkine, Koyorom and Malfahtri three weeks ago, following clashes between the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and Nigerian forces.

IOM recently sent an assessment team to N’Gbouboua. It found children and adults living in wretched conditions, sleeping on the ground in rough shelters that they had built themselves. They had no access to clean water or sanitation and the children were surviving
by begging for food, water and other provisions from villagers.

"This timely US funding will enable us to rescue these children and help them to return home to their families," said IOM Chad Chief of Mission Qasim Sufi.

Since the IOM assessment team returned from the area, which can only be accessed from Chad by 4WD vehicle on unmarked desert roads and a ferry river crossing, more migrants, including unaccompanied children, have continued to arrive in N’Gboubou from Nigeria.

IOM is now working with the government of Chad, ICRC, WFP and UNICEF to mobilize support for the stranded group. ICRC has offered technical expertise on family reunification and child tracing and WFP has volunteered food rations.

IOM will work with the Chadian Red Crescent / Red Cross to establish the children’s identity and locate their families. IOM will then provide them with transport to their homes. IOM will also transport a group of 160 Christian migrants from N’Gbouboua to their
homes in the south of the country.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Mar 13 2012. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry