Oxfam Forced to Stop Activities After Violent Attacks in East
July 15, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
11 July 2008
Posted to the web 14 July 2008
Goz Beida
International aid agency Oxfam Great Britain temporarily suspended activities and relocated staff from Kerfi in eastern Chad yesterday after armed men entered the compounds of several NGOs, intimidating and attacking humanitarian workers. Clashes between the Chadian National Army and attackers resulted in the death of at least one man and several injured people. This violence is unprecedented in Kerfi and has forced Oxfam GB to stop activities until the situation has improved.
Oxfam GB’s compound was attacked in the middle of the night by six armed men. Perpetrators shot several times and attempted without success to burn down a house where Oxfam’s staff were in hiding. All the staff are safe and have been relocated to Goz Beida.
Speaking from Chad, Oxfam GB’s Country Director, Roland Van Hauwermeiren said:
"We are deeply concerned by this attack and the implications this could have on our ability to provide critical water and sanitation work. It is the poorest and most vulnerable that will suffer the most as a result of the recent fighting. Insecurity remains a constant problem in Chad and the Government of Chad should work to curtail the environment of impunity which permeates eastern Chad. The international community must increase its efforts to forward the peace process."
Oxfam GB is providing water and sanitation to more than 11,000 people in Kerfi, both internally displaced and host communities. The agency has been forced to stop activities because of the insecurity and fears that this lack of access is putting lives of vulnerable population at risk. Water supplies are already scarce and only five hand-pumps are still running.
Oxfam GB urged local authorities to restore peace and to allow humanitarians workers to resume life-saving operations.
NGOs Suspend Aid in East
July 11, 2008
11 July 2008
Posted to the web 11 July 2008
Dakar
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Oxfam and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) have suspended their activities in Kerfi, near Goz Beida in eastern Chad, following attacks on the staff and compounds of several NGOs, both agencies announced in press statements on 10 July.
During the night of 9 July six armed men shot several times and attempted without success to burn down a house where Oxfam’s staff were hiding, the organisation announced in a statement, adding that ensuing clashes between the Chadian army and the armed attackers resulted in the death of at least one man and the injuries of several others.
"We are deeply concerned by [this] attack and the implication this could have on our ability to provide critical [help]", Roland Van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam-GB’s country director, announced in the statement. The NGO provides water and sanitation to over 11,000 people in Kerfi. "Insecurity remains a constant problem in Chad and the Chad government should work to curtail the environment of impunity which permeates this region," it continued.
MSF-Holland also announced the suspension of its activities on 10 July in the same town, following an attack against its health facility on 8 July by dozens of young men who beat up several staff members and patients.
Populations of this area of eastern Chad close to the Sudan border, have been the target of several attacks over the last months, according to UN officials. But in the case of the latest attacks, although the motives are unknown the MSF statement declared "it appears that NGOs are being intentionally targeted."
"The area] is very poor, there is not enough food, [whereas] NGOs have money and cars," Karline Kleijer, head of MSF-Holland mission in Chad, told IRIN. "But this time, there is nothing to do with that. To attack a health facility is quite extreme. Staff and patients have been beaten up; this has nothing to do with money".
NGOs are working to help Sudanese refugees, internally displaced people and local populations in the region.
Oxfam and MSF staff have been temporarily evacuated and relocated to Goz Beida, an hour away from Kerfi, from where many aid agencies operate. Some of MSF’s patients have also been transferred to Goz Beida, but the medical organisation expressed concern for the 3,000 patients it has been treating each month, and the 200 children who receive its nutritional support.
"I don’t see us coming back within the next few weeks," Kleijer said. "If we are targeted, it will be difficult to justify. They have to find a way to control [this violence]."
More than 10,000 displaced people live and around the town of Kerfi, in addition to the existing 8,000 inhabitants. Overall, about 250,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur and over 100,000 displaced Chadians are currently living in eastern Chad.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
UN Chief Concerned Over Impact of Violence
July 11, 2008
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 11 July 2008
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed deep concern over the impact of rebel activity in eastern Chad, which has thwarted access of humanitarian workers to the hundreds of thousands of people uprooted from their homes by violence.
"The civilian character of refugee camps and internally displaced persons [IDPs] sites continues to be compromised by the presence of armed elements in and around the camps," Mr. Ban wrote in a report made public today.
He added that the tenuous security situation has hindered access by aid agencies, especially since the 1 May killing of Pascal Marlinge, the Country Director for the non-governmental organization (NGO) Save The Children, who was shot by bandits while travelling in a three-vehicle convoy on the road between the towns of Farchana and Adre.
"I reiterate my condemnation of this criminal act and urge all parties to grant unrestricted access to humanitarian workers in eastern Chad," the Secretary-General stated.
The conflict in the country can only be resolved through a two-track approach: "real political dialogue" between the Chadian Government and armed and non-armed opposition groups, and an improvement in the relationship between N’Djamena and Khartoum, the capital of neighbouring Sudan.
"The United Nations stands ready to work together with the African Union and other partners in supporting efforts to restore lasting peace and security along the Chad-Sudan border," the report noted.
Meanwhile, he wrote that north-eastern Central African Republic (CAR) is still calm following a peace deal last month struck between the Government and the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) after talks in Libreville, Gabon, facilitated by that country’s President, El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba.
"This agreement will be an integral part of the upcoming inclusive political dialogue, a reconciliatory process aimed at addressing the country’s political and security crisis."
The report was Mr. Ban’s latest on the multidimensional UN presence in eastern Chad and north-eastern CAR, known as MINURCAT, which was created last year by the Security Council in a bid to quell humanitarian suffering.
Top UN Official Visits Town Ahead of Planned Mission Deployment
July 2, 2008
2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008
The senior United Nations official in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) has visited a key town in south-eastern Chad ahead of the planned deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission known as MINURCAT to the area.
Victor Angelo, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to CAR and Chad, visited Am Timan yesterday and met with the governor of the region, military authorities, a group of traditional leaders and other local dignitaries.
Mr. Angelo said he was in Am Timan in part to assess the security situation in the region, which lies close to the border with the CAR, in anticipation of the planned deployment of MINURCAT.
The mission’s role is essentially to reinforce security, administration and the justice system so that it can help create the conditions for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return voluntarily and safely to their homes.
South-eastern Chad continues to be plagued by highway banditry, attacks by armed rebels and illegal poaching in the Zakouma National Park, where rangers have also been targeted.
During his visit to Am Timan, Mr. Angelo also visited the premises of the local gendarmerie and police, which were destroyed in a rebellion in February this year.
International Community Urged to Contribute to Trans-Border Security
July 1, 2008
30 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008
Leocadia Bongben
The ministers in charge of security in Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic have addressed a plea to the international community to reinforce efforts of the states in fighting trans-border insecurity.
The ministers at the end of their meeting last week addressed their plea for the support of the international community specifically in the fight against the proliferation and circulation of illicit, small and light arms.
They stressed the need in particular for the High Commission for Refugees for substantial assistance in the three countries faced with the challenge of refugee influx and displaced persons.
Recognising the trans-border character of problems related to insecurity in the sub-region and the need to seek communal and concerted solutions, the positive results of the tripartite initiative, the ministers and heads of delegations recommended the gradual expansion to the CEMAC region, notably Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and to the whole States of the Central African Economic Community CEAC.
The ministers noted with dismay that despite measures taken in the respective countries, the situation in certain areas remains preoccupying and expressed the wish for the implementation of the 2005 tripartite meeting recommendations.
These recommendations had to do with the reinforcement of the capacity of the security forces and intensification of exchange of security information, and inquiries and reactivate the bilateral mixed commission on the issue of security and amelioration of cooperation, between the armed forces and the security.
Ambassador Francois Lonseny Fall, special representative of the UN Secretary General, during the meeting presided over by the Minister of External Relations, Henry Eyebe Ayissi, appreciated the level, availability and cooperation of the commission with the Central African Office of United Nations.
While appreciating the positive results registered in the Central African Republic, CAR, with the election process, he said the advisory body of the commission noted the deterioration of the security situation with incessant attacks on the population by armed bandits.
He said the attacks on civilians have led to the displacement of persons inside and outside the CAR.He reiterated the commitment of the Department of Political Affairs of the UN in extending the tripartite mechanisms to the CEMAC states and to accompany them in the initiative.
Country Registers More Refugee Influx
June 30, 2008
23 June 2008
Posted to the web 23 June 2008
Nformi Sonde Kinsai
Statistics from the Yaounde-based regional office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, indicates that the number of refugees streaming into Cameroon is on the rise.
According to information presented in Yaounde June 20, on the occasion of the World Refugee Day, the UNHCR country representative, Jacques Franquin, said some 9000 Chadian refugees entered northern Cameroon in February.
The massive movement of the refugees was triggered by the February attack by rebels on N’djamena. Out of this figure, Franquin said some 6000 are still found in a refugee camp northwest of Garoua, while 5000 Central African refugees are found in the East Province.
He noted that urban refugees benefiting from the services of UNHCR stands at 15,000.
Stating that the refugee population in Cameroon has been on a steady rise within the past years, Franquin attributed the massive and forceful displacement of the people on politically motivated wars underlined by poverty and bad governance.
He also observed that the rising prices of foodstuff across the world is stirring conflicts resulting in the displacement of people.The UNHCR representative said all these ills could be handled through preventive diplomacy. He, however, observed that due to illegal movement of some people, it is difficult to ascertain those who are moving under compulsion and others who are willfully moving to look for better conditions of living elsewhere.
Revisiting the theme of the commemoration: "Protection of Refugees," Franquin said the rights of refugees are human rights.He reminded the people of rich nations that the highest numbers of people forcefully displaced are from the developing countries where economic and political conditions are not the best.
Cameroon’s Minister of Social Affairs, Catherine Bakang Mbock, added that apart from the large number Chadian and Central African Republic refugees, as many as 17,000 Nigerians also streamed into Cameroon in 2003 and 2004. Out of this figure, The Post was told, barely 3000 have returned to their country of origin.
She said the protection of refugees by Cameroon is paramount, considering its adherence to the 1951 Geneva Convention and its additional protocols on the protection of refugees.
In the UN Secretary General’s message, Ban Ki Moon dwelt on the right of refugees to asylum as a way of protecting them from persecution.
He said "contrary to public perceptions in many industrialised nations, developing countries actually bear the burden of hosting a larger number of refugees, despite their limited resources."
According to him, "conflict and poverty, the most common reasons people are compelled to leave their homes, are now amplified by the effects of climate change, increasing scarcity of resources and food shortages - factors which may lead to greater insecurity in the future…"
Ban Ki Moon’s message was read by the resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, in Cameroon, Mrs. Odile Sorgho-Moulinier.
The President of Urban refugees in Cameroon, Chadian-born Samuel Madjambra, reiterated that refugees are in dire need of protection, which is the basis of the UNHCR operations.
He called on his fellow refugees to remain peaceful but insisted that they should be given the right to attend professional schools as well as receive good health services.
Water and Wood Shortages Worsen
June 30, 2008
26 June 2008
Posted to the web 27 June 2008
David Axe
Iriba
Every morning soon after sunrise, Fatne Abdaraman walks a short distance across the Iridimi refugee camp in eastern Chad hauling a twenty-litre plastic jug.
She lines it up along with other women’s containers at the water distribution point, then awaits her turn to draw her daily allotment of one of Central Africa’s scarcest resources, one that underpins ongoing conflict in the region.
Fair access to water and firewood are motivators in rebellions in Chad, Central Africa and the Darfur region of Sudan, according to Alain Lapierre, a manager with aid group CARE International.
Indeed, these two things are never far from the minds of Abdaraman, the other 18,000 North Darfuri refugees in Iridima and the original residents of the nearby town of Iriba. Both vital resources were in short supply even before the Darfur conflict sent 250,000 refugees streaming into eastern Chad. Now they’re being consumed faster than Mother Nature can replenish them — and shifting weather patterns are taking their toll, too.
Despite desperate efforts by international aid groups, local authorities estimate the wood will run out next year. Water might soon follow.
But today, there’s enough water in Iridimi’s modern distribution system to fill Abdaraman’s container. And when there isn’t? "I just walk to the other well," she explains while filling her jug from a stainless steel spigot, children thronging around her.
But the other well is half a mile away and lies outside the camp. The half-hour donkey ride isn’t just hot and tedious, it can be dangerous, too, considering the rise in banditry and Sudanese rebel activity in eastern Chad, the latter blamed mostly on the Sudan-based National Alliance group, which seeks to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby.
It’s a traditional open well, 15-metres deep, plugged directly into an underground reservoir. The water that emerges here is fresh, clean and rich in minerals. Problem is, the well was dug years ago by the residents of Iriba — and they don’t like refugees using it. Soon after the refugee camp at Iridimi was established in 2004, fights broke out at the well between women from Iriba and those from the camp. The two sides formed a traditional committee to mediate water spats, and today the well is raucous, with women elbowing for space at the well’s edge, but full-fledged fights are rare.
But in a broader sense, Iridimi’s water problems are just beginning — and they are having a knock-on effect on the firewood shortage, too.
Adrian Djimdim, a CARE manager working at Iridimi, says his teams are having to dig deeper and deeper to hit ground water for new wells.
"And when you start finding it, there might not be as much as you thought," chimes in Abdoulay Dramon, an engineer for CARE.
The two men are trying everything they can think of to stretch the camp’s water supply. Where the modern electrical water pumps are inadequate, they install manual pumps. And they’re trying out new ways of capturing more of Chad’s intense, but brief, summer rains.
Typically, rain water streams too fast down parched riverbeds — called "wadis" — for the ground to sponge it up and make it available to the wells. So Djimdim and Dramon have begun building makeshift dams along wadis in and around the camp. "The idea is to… slow it down so it can soak the ground," Dramon says.
They started with a small dam system in a wadi leading to a garden inside the camp. This year their big project is a reinforced concrete dam in a bigger wadi nearby. But even that dam might prove a disappointment, as Chad’s traditionally four-month-long rainy season has been growing shorter, a phenomenon Lapierre blames on global climate change.
Even if the rains returned to normal and the dams worked as advertised, it might be too late to save Iridimi’s dwindling wood supply. The U.N. recommends that the refugees get just under a kilo of firewood per day, says Caroline St. Mleux from CARE, but at Iridimi, there is just a third that amount per person. And the problem is getting worse. Iridimi president Abu Abbaker Atom says the wood will run out next year.
In one sense, the wood already has run out. No one collects dead wood in Iridimi any more — there simply isn’t any. To provide for the refugees, a local nonprofit called Adesk scours the countryside. Every morning at 3 am, Adesk collectors head out in lumbering heavy-duty trucks. They return to Iridimi 6 hours later with up to 3 tons of dry, twisted branches in the back, each one begged or pilfered from someone else’s backyard.
Refugee women climb atop and toss the wood down for bundling, weighing and distribution. At the weigh station, Amdalal Usman Abakar says there’s never enough wood for her and her six children. (Her husband is still in Sudan.) Each of the camp’s ten zones gets just one delivery per month — and the deliveries are getting tougher and tougher for Adesk.
At first, the group collected wood from just outside the camp. Now collectors travel as far as 60 kilometres away, sometimes even across the border with Sudan. With each kilometer the collectors must travel, their work becomes more expensive, more dangerous and less likely to succeed.
Planting more trees is the only long-term solution to the wood shortage — and CARE does have a small nursery at Iridimi where two shifts of around 20 workers — all refugees — tend thousands of tiny seedlings. But many of the young trees die from a lack of water, Djimdim says, and even those that survive might need three years before they start producing firewood.
In the meantime, Iridimi is pinning its hopes on an unlikely combination of high technology and old-fashioned technique. CARE is handing out $100-dollar "Save 80" stoves to all families with three or more people. These sophisticated, heat-trapping metal stoves use just 20-percent as much wood as an open fire, hence the name.
But due to their cost, the Save 80s are only slowly trickling in, according to St. Mleux. So many Iridimi families have relearned/rediscovered traditional methods of enclosing an open fire in an earthen shell, essentially duplicating the Save 80’s heat-saving technology.
Maybe rainwater harvesting is part of a solution. Here’s an article about it: http://www.brightfuture.us/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=28#jreactions
Rebels Seen Moving Again in East
June 30, 2008
13 June 2008
Posted to the web 13 June 2008
Ndjamena
Two columns of armed fighters are moving close to areas where aid operations are ongoing in eastern Chad, aid workers in the area said on 13 June.
"The local authorities have already run away from Goz Beida town," an aid worker based in Goz Beida told IRIN by telephone.
"Two columns of rebels have been seen, one near Goz Beida and the other near Abeche. The governor told us we should call the EUFOR [European Union Force] troops to protect us because the rebels are coming," the aid official said.
The rebel sightings come following several news reports of clashes between rebels and the Chadian army close to Abeche, and reports that a Chadian army helicopter was shot down on Thursday 12 June.
Also on 12 June state media in Chad reported the government spokesperson Mahamat Hissene as saying in a statement that: "Mercenaries in the pay of Sudan entered Chadian territory on 11 June between Ade and Amdjerena" in eastern Chad.
Chad and Sudan have frequently accused each other of backing anti-government rebels over the last three years. Groups of armed fighters reportedly based in the Darfur region of Sudan have crossed the border twice to attack the Chadian capital N’djamena, first in 2006 and again in March this year.
Both times they were repelled after days of bloody street fighting with the Chadian army. There have also been frequent skirmishes in the eastern provinces of Chad and near the border with Sudan.
When the outer defenses of the Sudan capital Khartoum were breached by rebels in May this year, the government accused Chad of backing those groups, a charge denied by Chad.
While Chad’s government and army have been preoccupied with defending against rebel attacks, more than 150,000 Chadians have been internally displaced by militias which are operating with total impunity in the east. Hundreds of villages have been looted and many Chadians killed and maimed.
Analysts and observers had speculated that the anti-government rebels might make another push to seize N’djamena before heavy rains which usually last from July until October would make it impossible for them to cross the country from Sudan.
A European Union military deployment, EUFOR, is currently on the ground in eastern Chad, mandated to protect the 12 camps housing Sudanese refugees from Darfur. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) operates there, as well as non-governmental organisations and local civil society groups. Aid agencies have complained that EUFOR is failing to properly protect them amid a deteriorating security environment.
Should the rebels succeed in seizing the capital, diplomats and analysts fear that the country could descend into factionalised warfare.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
There was no rebel attack on N’Djamena in March.
‘Africa’s Pinochet’ Still Eluding Justice
June 30, 2008
23 June 2008
Posted to the web 24 June 2008
Katie Vandever
United Nations
Two years after the African Union mandated Senegal to conduct the trial of Chadian dictator Hissenè Habré, who is accused of thousands of political murders during his eight-year reign, the prosecution remains in limbo, six human rights groups complained in a joint statement Monday.
"Senegal has perfected the art of delay in this case. The African Union’s credibility is at stake," said Alioune Tine of the Dakar-based African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (RADDHO). "This is a test case for African justice. Africa can’t complain that international justice is picking on African leaders while it allows the Habré case to die a slow death in Senegal."
Habré ruled Chad from 1982 until 1990, when he fled to Senegal after being deposed by the current president, Idriss Deby Itno. During his regime, Habré and his political police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), committed violent atrocities, including widespread arrests, systematic torture and the mass murder of ethnic groups throughout Chad, according to Human Rights Watch.
Habré and the DDS, all of Gorane ethnicity, practiced ethnic cleansing by targeting various groups from Muslim and Christian tribes such as the Sara, Hdjerai Chadian Arabs and the Zaghawa and imprisoning group members and leaders who posed a threat to his rule. His record of atrocities has evoked comparisons with Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet.
Habre’s reign of terror is the subject of a powerful new documentary that premiered in New York at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival this month, titled "The Dictator Hunter" and directed by Klaartje Quirijns.
One of the main protagonists is Souleymane Guengueng, who founded the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crime (AVCRP) after Habré’s fall and is described as "the real motor" behind the Habré case.
Falsely accused of being a supporter of Habré’s opposition, Guengueng was held prisoner in a cell that was barely high enough to stand up in, with 100 watt light bulbs that made many victims blind, and Guengueng nearly completely blind. For two and a half years, it was as if his head was "exploding from suffering".
"I felt like if god would allow me to survive, I could not just let this go, I had to do something. And I prefer to be killed than to give up this fight," Guengueng said.
Today, jobless and without his wife and nine children, Guengueng is living in New York City, where he is seeking treatment for his eye condition. If he were to return to Chad, he fears he would be killed by Habré’s torturers.
In what has resulted in a seven-year battle, Human Rights Watch lawyer Reed Brody — the "dictator hunter" of the film’s title — has been working with the AVCRP, gathering testimonies from 792 victims to bring Habré to trial in Senegal or extradite him to a country that will bring him to justice.
"This case has the potential to have a historical precedent because it doesn’t depend on the United Nations or the [Hague-based] International Criminal Court," Brody says in the film. "The Hissenè Habré case is being driven by the victims."
Ismael Hachim experienced one of Habré’s more popular methods of torture, called "Arbatachar". A prisoner’s legs and arms are tied together behind their back, causing extreme pain, lose of circulation, paralysis, open wounds, and sometimes gangrene, according to the "The Dictator Hunter".
Hachim was held captive with 30 other victims in a cell that was once used as a swimming pool reserved for the French military. The cells were so full that many died due to lack of oxygen. Others would sleep on the dead bodies until they were taken away, as the corpses kept them cooler.
In May 2001, Brody and Olivier Bercault of Human Rights Watch discovered files from the DDS, which revealed the names of 1,208 people who were killed or died in detention, and another 12,000 who were subjected to human rights violations.
"I think he was a paranoid control freak who could never tolerate opposition," Brody says. "He knew every detail, you could see that in the documents."
The thousands of files included daily lists of prisoners and deaths in detention, interrogation reports, surveillance reports, and death certificates. Details of how Habré placed the DDS under his direct control, organised ethnic cleansing, and kept tight control over DDS operations were also found.
A 1992 Truth Commission blamed Habré’s regime for 40,000 political deaths, although the exact number of victims is not known.
In 2000, Habré was indicted in Senegal but the case was thrown out when his lawyers and a state prosecutor determined that Senegalese courts did not have competence over crimes not committed in Senegal.
Aid Resumes As Conflict Abates
June 30, 2008
19 June 2008
Posted to the web 19 June 2008
Ndjamena
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR resumed its humanitarian operations in all 12 refugee camps along Chad’s eastern border with Sudan on 17 June as conflict abated in the east.
"It appears that the situation is returning to normal, and so we are going back to the camps," said Annette Rehrl, spokesperson for UNHCR.
Calm was restored as the Chadian government claimed victory on 17 June following fighting with rebels in Am Zoer, a town 89km northeast of Abeche, which left 161 rebels and three government soldiers dead according to Chadian military spokesperson Mahamat Hassan Abakar, speaking on the radio on 17 June. These figures have not been confirmed by rebel leaders.
Abakar said the army had seized 61 vehicles, as well as weapons and ammunition, during the fighting. According to a journalist in Am Zoer, dead bodies and burned vehicles can still be seen on the town’s streets.
"It is the end of the Sudanese adventure," said governor of Ouaddai region, Bichara Issa Djadallah, echoing Chadian government accusations - denied by Sudan - that its eastern neighbour is behind the attacks. According to government sources, rebels are now scattered across the area and some have returned to Sudan.
Rebel columns entered eastern Chad on 13 June, and attempted to take the towns of Goz Beida, Am-Dam, and Biltine. Rebels commanders told journalists that their objective was the capital N’djamena, which rebels also attacked in February.
Major General Touka Ramadan Korei, commander of operations for the Chadian army, announced on the radio, "the intention of the mercenaries was to attack Abeche, but they fell into our trap."
In Abeche people are now going about their daily business. "The market is teeming with people as usual," said one resident.
"Chad is very volatile and it’s very difficult to predict what may happen next here," UNHCR’s Rehrl said.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]