On 23 November 2011, the UN Secretary General ordered the dispatch of an Interagency Mission to the Sahel to assess the scope of the threat of the Libyan crisis in the region and the national, regional and international capacities to respond to those challenges.

The main objective of the mission was to collect information on:

• the influx of unemployed returnees including migrant workers, former combatants and armed elements into these countries from Libya, and the impact that their return is having on the socio-economic and political stability in the host communities;
• the inflow of weapons into the region;
• the nature and the extent of criminal and terrorist activities in these countries and ongoing regional initiatives to address them, and the impact on the security sector;
• the national operational capacity of the security sector;
• judicial reform;
• additional efforts needed to address the root causes of recurrent food insecurity and malnutrition and other humanitarian issues;
• youth unemployment; and
• disaster risk evaluation.

The mission was led by Sam Bassey Ibok, Deputy Director, Africa II Division; Department of Political Affairs of the UN Secretariat, who was assisted by the African Union Representative in N’Djamena, Ambassador Ki-Doulaye Corentin and 18 representatives from above the UN Security Council and Agencies, the AU and IOM.

The mission visited Chad from 15-17 December and met with government representatives including the Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Human Rights, Minister of Territorial Administration, Minister of Public Security and Inter-Ministerial Committee; Diplomatic Missions including USA, Russia, France and Germany and the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Chad.

IOM made a presentation to the team on its Emergency Response to Returnees from Libya in Chad.

The mission was made possible through the efforts of the Department of Political Affairs; Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Office; Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate; Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; Peacebuilding Support Office of the United Nations (UN); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL); United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA); African Union’s African Centre for Study and Research on Terrorism; and IOM.

For more information, contact:

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