Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlchad



Chad <![CDATA[Chad is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from 30 years of internal conflict and the 1973 Libyan invasion. Some 90% of known mined areas are located in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region in the north; for reasons of security, this region was not included in the 1999–2001 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS), which identified 249 mine-affected communities across the rest of the country.

Contamination includes a generalized unexploded ordnance (UXO) problem across the country, including new contamination in and around the capital, N’Djamena, after combat between government troops and rebel forces at the beginning of February 2008. Clearance teams employed by the National Demining Center (Centre National de Deminage, CND) disposed of 45 tons (40,823kg) of explosive ordnance following the attacks. Further combat was reported in the east of the country in the following months and especially in June 2008. Between December 2005 and early 2007, in addition to the conflict in the Tibesti region, various rebel groups attacked the National Army in the east (along the border with Sudan), the south (along the border with the Central African Republic), and the capital. During these and other battles, malfunctioning ammunition was abandoned and became a hazard to civilians. Following the end of conflict with Libya in 1987, submunitions and cluster munition containers have been found in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region, Biltine region (northeastern Chad), and east of N’Djamena. Chad estimated that at the end of 2007 some 670km2 remained to be demined (outside of the Tibesti region).

In 2007, 186 new mine/ERW casualties in 98 incidents, including 51 people killed, 131 injured and four of unknown status were recorded in the CND database.

Tampering/handling ERW or standing nearby caused 146 casualties (78%). Most of the other activities occurred while traveling or conducting livelihood activities, such as shepherding or burning weeds for farming; for eight casualties, the activity was not recorded. At least 121 of the casualties occurred in eastern Chad (121). Of total casualties, 182 occurred before 1 September.

The 2007 casualty rate was the highest recorded since 1998, but it is not the nearly threefold increase that occurred between 2006 (139) and 2005 (40). The increase is due to increased internal conflict and spill-over from the Darfur (Sudan) conflict into eastern Chad, but also partly due to better data collection. It is believed that casualties remain under-reported due to the size of the country and because some areas are not accessible for security reasons.

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