Chad received the highest number of evacuees, i.e., returnees, refugees and Third Country Nationals (TCNs) fleeing the Central African Republic (CAR) crisis. As of 31 August 2014, IOM registered over 110,000 evacuees. This number is expected to increase due to the unaccounted number of Chadian returnees who fled the CAR crisis but are stranded in the neighbouring countries.

As the Government of Chad has closed its borders with neighbouring countries due to security reasons, IOM requested the Government for the repatriation of Chadian migrants who fled CAR but are stranded in Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville. Following the approval of the Government of Chad and in coordination with the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), a new site to accommodate and to provide post-arrival assistance to repatriated migrants is set up in Djako, Moundou.

The Djako site is situated 50 kms from Moundou and 70 kms from the border with Cameroon (Map 1).

The selection process of Djako was done in coordination with the national authorities, i.e., the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Public Security, Governor and the Prefect of Logone Occidental region. Three field missions to Moundou were conducted before the selection of the site. The first field mission was carried out by a technical team from OCHA, IOM, UNICEF, WFP and IRC on 21 June 2014. The second field mission was done by the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) a.i. and the Head of OCHA on 24 June 2014. The last field mission was done by the HC on 03 July 2014.

The reasons for selecting Djako are:

• Lack of space for accommodating additional caseloads of returnees in the existing temporary sites of Maigama and Danamadja;
• Growing tensions between evacuees and host communities in the existing temporary sites; and 
• Djako could be transformed to a temporary site if the need arises.    

As agreed by the HCT, IOM built the shelters and manages the site as the co-lead agency of the Shelter/CCCM cluster that has been reactivated this year; WFP provides food; UNICEF takes care of Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) while IRC provides health services.

Currently, there are 317 shelters (Map 2) at the site made of 10 Community Shelters (Photo 1) and 307 Family Shelters (Photo 2) and are occupied by 1,474 Chadian migrants repatriated from Cameroon (1,344) and Congo Brazzaville (130).

IOM emergency response activities in Djako are financially supported by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and by the in-kind donation of tarpaulins and blankets from the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) through OCHA Chad.

Contact:

Dr. Qasim Sufi
Chief of Mission, IOM Chad
Tel.: +235 22 52 53 59/60 (Ext. 111)
Mobile: +235 62 90 06 74
Fax: +235 22 52 53 61
Email: qsufi@iom.int