Update on Steve; still held hostage

Mr. Godbold is a missionary with TEAM and has lived and worked in Chad for a number of years. On October 10, 2007 he was on a humanitarian mission, delivering equipment for water wells in the Tibesti when he was detained by MDJT forces in Zoumri. Mr. Godbold has been in the custody of the MDJT ever since.

PRESS RELEASE

TEAM Sends Plane For Hostage Steve Godbold

Following MDJT Announcement

For Immediate Release

April 30, 2008

The faith-based organization TEAM, located in the United States, announces that it has arranged for an aircraft operated by a medical non-governmental organization in Chad to fly to Bardai to receive Steve Godbold, who has been detained by rebel forces since October 10, 2007. TEAM also offers to allow a representative of the international media to accompany this flight to observe the process.

On April 28, 2008 the President of the MDJT, Mr. Choua Dazi, stated in an interview published by Liberté sans frontières and posted at www.dabio.net that Mr. Godbold is “free” and that the MDJT is seeking a means to facilitate his departure from the Tibesti region of Chad.

Mr. Godbold is a missionary with TEAM and has lived and worked in Chad for a number of years. On October 10, 2007 he was on a humanitarian mission, delivering equipment for water wells in the Tibesti when he was detained by MDJT forces in Zoumri. Mr. Godbold has been in the custody of the MDJT ever since.

During this period, spokesmen for the MDJT have promised several times to release Mr. Godbold:

• On October 18, 2007 Mr. Dazi told a reporter from RFI “This is the beginning of our investigation. I think that in a week’s time it will be decided. If he is innocent, then he will be freed, no problem.”
  
• On October 24, 2007 Mr. Dazi told a reporter from Reuters “In two or three days we will conclude (our investigation) and then we’ll see what preparations we can make to free him”.
  
• On November 5, 2007 Mr. Hissein Yaya Barka, Assistant General Secretary of the MDJT, told a French website “After a two-week investigation we have made the decision to liberate (Mr. Godbold) in the coming days.”
  
• On January 8, 2008 Mr. Barka issued a press release that said “On November 5^th, 2007, we made the decision to release him (Godbold)”.
  
• During this time, leaders of the MDJT also made private promises to a large humanitarian organization to release Mr. Godbold.
  

TEAM issued this statement today: “Although we do not understand why the MDJT did not follow through on its earlier public promises to release Steve, we appreciate and respect Mr. Dazi’s announcement yesterday that Steve is ‘free’. We have arranged for an airplane from a medical NGO based at a hospital in Chad to fly to Bardai as quickly as possible so that the MDJT can complete its commitment and return Steve to freedom. The airplane will go to Bardai on Friday, May 2. We call on Mr. Dazi and the rest of the leadership of the MDJT to honor their promise and their commitment and send Steve to Bardai to meet this plane.” TEAM also confirmed that it is seeking a member of the international media to accompany the flight as a guarantee of transparency and good faith in the process.

For further information, contact: cmt.presse@googlemail.com

Update: The plane went up to Bardai, and waited for the promised release of Steve. Unfortunately, Steve was not released, and the plane had to return without him. So the captivity of Steve continues...
Each day, our prayer for Steve has been, "Father, if today he is in the hands of the MDJT, may He be a blessing to those around him, for this is what he lives for. And if it is Your will, may Steve be released very soon and reunited with his family. Amen."

Killings of Humanitarian Workers in Chad and Darfur Cause Concern

UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network by Caroline Patton / - 01 May 2008 -- Over the last several months, several aid workers have died as a result of the unrest taking place in the two countries and the UN is worried about the safety of its personnel in the area. Because of the conflicts that have roiled both Chad and Sudan , the need for humanitarian assistance is particularly acute so disruption of operations could have terrible consequences.

Yesterday, Pascal Marlinge, the Country Director of Save the Children-UK, was killed in Chad en route to Adre in eastern Chad . The group of three aid vehicles was attacked by a pair of men carrying guns and wearing uniforms. Mr. Marlinge was from France and the UN has offered its sympathy to his family in the face of their loss.

This is not the first time such a killing has occurred. Towards the end of 2007, a driver for UNHCR in Chad died after being shot in an attack.

The UN has spoken out forcefully against the attack that led to the death of Mr. Marlinge and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told the international community that “the targeting of humanitarian workers who are in Chad to help those suffering from civil strife is an inexcusable crime.”

Mr. Holmes added that “the UN welcomes assurances by the Government of Chad that this crime will be investigated.”

Mr. Merlinge’s death comes just over a week after a humanitarian worker died in Sudan . A 58- year old driver, on his first run, was killed while distributing much needed food and supplies in Darfur . The worker, Mohammed Makki El Rasheed, left behind six children. This makes two such deaths there in as many months.

Another driver died in late March and 60 WFP vehicles have been attacked in 2008, with the fate 39 of them, and 26 of the drivers, unknown.

These deaths threaten operations in the region since aid workers face the risk of being hurt or killed in ambushes like the one that killed Mr. Merlinge. Mr. Holmes said of today’s attack that “this despicable act is likely to exacerbate already challenging conditions in which humanitarian workers continue to provide much-needed relief to those in need.”

The WFP has already expressed concern to the Government of Sudan about the need to be able to protect its personnel and that of partner organizations. Already operations are hampered by strikes on UN trucks that make it difficult to move food and other necessities. As a result of last week’s killing in Darfur , food rations were reduced due to low supplies. The stockpiles of humanitarian agencies are well below where they should be.

In order to keep going its work providing for millions of people in Darfur , “WFP is calling on all rebel groups and their commanders on the ground to ensure safety along the roads where they operate, so that humanitarian food relief can arrive to those who need it.” It has also appealed to the Government for police to be assigned to go along with humanitarian supply transports to help prevent attacks.

--Caroline Patton

Click here to go to the original article

Please pray for Chad and Sudan. More and more it becomes apparent that the only solution to the troubles is a divine intervention from God (also known as a miracle). And we believe in miracles, right?

3000 homeless after fire breaks out in Chad refugee camp

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

A fire broke out in a refugee camp in eastern Chad Friday, April 11, leaving 3,000 people homeless and injuring 10, according to the United Nations (UN) refugee agency United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Refugees have been living in the camp as a result of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The fire started in the Goz Amer camp triggered by a cooking fire that had gone unwatched. The fire moved quickly through the camp due to high winds. Many of the refugees lost all of their belongings and food rations in the blaze. After receiving tents from the UNHCR in 2004, many of the refugees built traditional dwellings out of sticks and mud, and these shelters burned rapidly in the fire.

In a UNHCR press release, Emmanuel Uwurukundo, acting UNHCR head in Koukou-Angarana said: "Everybody around, refugees and all our partners alike, rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish the fire with whatever they had: clothes, extinguishers and water. The teamwork was outstanding."

In Geneva the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres commented on the situation: "The refugees have already suffered so much tragedy and now face yet another trauma. I am deeply relieved that there was no loss of life in this devastating fire. We will do everything we can to help and to get shelter and food supplies to them as quickly as possible."

Families affected by the fire were housed at three area schools, and the UNHCR announced on Friday that it planned to deliver aid supplies including sleeping mats, blankets and kitchen sets. The World Food Programme was also asked by the UNHCR for an extra monthly food ration to be delivered to the families whose homes were destroyed in the blaze.

The Goz Amer camp houses about 20,500 refugees, and is located approximately 70 kilometers from the Sudanese border. Goz Amer is one of 12 UNHCR-run camps along the Chad-Sudan which all told contain over 240,000 refugees from Darfur.

Chad and Sudan signed a peace agreement on March 13 in an attempt to end a five-year conflict, and the leaders of both countries agreed not to back rebel groups that are active near their borders.

Approximately 2.2 million people from the Darfur region have left their homes since the beginning of the violence in 2003. The UN puts the number of deaths due to the Darfur conflict at over 200,000, and the Sudanese government has said that only 9,000 have died.

Please pray for God to intervene with His hand of encouragement and blessing on behalf of the refugees in Goz Amer, and all the other camps in eastern Chad and western Sudan.

Chad: High Civilian Casualties in Rebel-Govt Crossfire

Posted to the web 3 April 2008

Ndjamena (IRIN): Fighting in recent years in eastern Chad between the government and rebels has usually taken place away from civilian populations, but in the latest battle on 1 April more than 50 civilians were killed and injured.

"One was a little girl who picked up an unexploded ordinance which then exploded in her face," Jan Peter Stellema, head of mission in Chad for the non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), told IRIN.

The fighting, which took place in Adé near the border with Sudan, left seven civilians dead and 47 wounded, he said.

Medical workers from MSF and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) treated the injured civilians on the spot in Adé expect for the nine most serious cases which were transferred to facilities at the regional capital Goz Beida.

Stellema said MSF is "pleased that access had been granted to treat the civilians", but he also expressed concern that Adé's 1,000 inhabitants and the 10,000 displaced Chadians living alongside them remain vulnerable to attack and that they have been neglected by international aid agencies.

"Adé has one of the most underserved populations in eastern Chad. The UN has not gone there because of security concerns nor are other humanitarian groups present."

Only MSF and the ICRC have projects in the area, Stellema said. "MSF is providing health care but people there need is so much more."

Representatives at ICRC expressed concern that an escalation of the fighting would further hamper the delivery of humanitarian assistance adding that the high number of civilian causalities at Adé was a worrying development.

"The type and setting of past armed confrontations in eastern Chad has led to a very limited number of civilian causalities," ICRC deputy head in Chad Nicholai Panke told IRIN by email. "ICRC calls on all parties to [continue to] spare civilians from hostilities."

Hundreds of civilians were killed in Chad's capital N'djamena in early February when rebels temporarily entered the city. Some of the civilian causalities occurred when government forces attacked rebels with helicopter gun ships, observers told IRIN.

In the meantime border tensions are mounting with Sudan reportedly accusing Chad of sending a helicopter into Darfur which bombed the town of Um Kenjub, and firing a missile on the Sudanese military in the area. Chad's government denied the report.

Following the 1 April attack in Adé, 47 injured soldiers were flown by the French army, which is based in Chad, for treatment in hospitals in the eastern town of Abeche and N'djamena, a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous told IRIN.

IRIN contacted a French commander in Chad but he would not comment.

State radio said on 3 April that the army recuperated 45 heavily armed pickups that the rebels had abandoned. There is no information on numbers of rebels injured but ICRC confirmed the Chadian army had taken prisoners.

"ICRC will visit them over the next days to monitor their conditions of detention, as we usually do with all captured opposition fighters in Chad," Panke said.

Original article was posted on AllAfrica.com

CHAD: Foreboding with first rebel attack since February

01 Apr 2008 20:11:31 GMT

Source: IRIN

NDJAMENA, 1 April 2008 (IRIN) - An attack on government troops early on 1 April at the town of Ade in eastern Chad on the border with Sudan is the first serious attempt by the rebels to challenge government forces since February when the rebels got as far as the capital N'djamena before withdrawing.

"The attack today [1 April] could just be a single event but we fear that it is the beginning of a much larger offensive," according to a diplomat in N'djamena who wished to remain anonymous.

Dozens of government troops and many civilians were injured in the fighting which ended around midday, according to a source in Ade. Information on the number of rebel causalities was unavailable, nor was it clear whether the rebels had retreated into Sudan or moved southeast in the direction of the Chadian village of Modoyna which is near the border.

Sources in Ade confirmed that the attackers were part of the rebel National Alliance (NA), which consists of at least three rebel groups headed by Mahamat Nouri a former Chadian general who led the attack on Ndjamena in February. "What the rebels do next is anyone's guess," said the diplomat. "Maybe they just wanted to rattle their sabers and that will be it or maybe this attack was a decoy for larger rebel attacks that could soon take place elsewhere along the border and we are about to witness something big."

"The important thing is that everyone is preparing for any eventuality," he added, referring to the evacuation from N'djamena of diplomats, international aid workers and tens of thousands of civilians during the February rebel offensive.

The Chadian ministry of defense issued a statement saying that Sudan is behind the latest attack and calling the rebels "mercenaries" of Sudan's government. It said that Sudan had violated various accords with Chad notably the one signed on 13 Match in Dakar, in front of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders. A Sudanese military spokesman told Reuters in Khartoum: "Sudan's armed forces had no hand in what is happening in Chad - this is an internal matter."