Red Cross trucks arrive in Chad to help western Sudan refugees

GENEVA, Feb 02, 2004 (IFRC/ST) — As Sudanese refugees continue to pour into eastern Chad, the first of 20 Red Cross trucks that will deliver vital food and relief supplies have arrived in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. At least 95,000 refugees, most of them women and children, have crossed the border, fleeing from fighting in the western Sudanese province of Darfur.

Ten of the M6 all-terrain trucks, donated by the Norwegian Red Cross, arrived on board a Russian cargo plane on Monday morning. The rest of the vehicles will land in N’Djamena on Wednesday.

The trucks are an important component of an International Federation appeal for 2.3 million Swiss francs (US$1.8 million) launched in December 2003. The six-wheel drive trucks, identical to those used to great effect in the Federation’s Southern Africa food operation, will enable the Chad Red Cross (CRT), a long-standing operational partner of the World Food Programme and the UNHCR in the country, to deliver food and non-food aid from the UN agencies to the refugees.

Many of the displaced civilians are sleeping in the open, with little food or water. The UN and Chadian government plan to relocate them into four refugee camps, but currently they are spread over a wide area, making the systematic distribution of aid virtually impossible.

“This transport package will provide the Chad Red Cross and partners in the UN system with the capacity to get aid to the people who urgently need it, whatever the terrain and whatever the weather. This will be especially important when the rainy season arrives and roads become inaccessible to regular vehicles,” said Martin Zak, who is managing the Federation operation.

As part of the operation, the CRT will also implement public health activities and provide agricultural support, in the form of seeds and tools, to vulnerable families. The Federation is also putting in place a telecommunications programme to ensure the smooth running of the operation.

It is envisaged that some of the trucks will also be used as part of the CRT’s relief operation for some 60,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in southern Chad.