Why are there still forgotten people?

a chadian petrol station

Tonight I was supposed to be flying back from Chad. Unfortunately the trip was cancelled because a ‘state of emergency’ was declared in the capital, N’djamena.

Whilst the government played down the alert for international media 'eyes', they evacuated their personnel through the back door. UN, WHO and MSF workers and wives were sent home or packed off to Mali (next door). Meanwhile, over 300 civilians have been killed, 90,000 Chadians displaced from their homes, and 1000’s of Sudanese destitute refugees left more destitute(because foreign aid agencies have pulled out).
And the rest of Chad is on stand-by, awaiting whatever comes next.

The instability has been caused by rebel militia spilling over the eastern boarder with Sudan, set on marking their protest on the re- (third time!) election of the present Chadian president, Idriss Derby. Whether linked with or armed by Sudanese Janjaweed rebels or not, their tactics seem similar and two days before we were due to fly, they captured an eastern town and to all intents and purposes were heading towards the N’djamena (where we were also headed).

So we didn’t go.

And little if nothing was mentioned on international news.

Because Chad is the fifth largest African nation but is one of the poorest countries in the world

Because although it has oil, the west are already siphoning both it and most of its profits and the country is in too much debt to the World Bank to do much about it

Because it might be news but its not ‘interesting’ news.

Because it affects 9.1 million people who don’t affect the west.

In Chad, a 'state of emergency' continues…..


Since they didn’t tell you – I thought I would.


Pictures I didn’t take….
bbc pics