IOM will send a road convoy carrying aid for over 1,000 displaced
migrants, most of them unaccompanied children, stranded in the
remote village of N'Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad.

The US embassy in Chad has agreed to provide funding for
transportation and family reunification assistance. The money will
also enable IOM to buy essential non-food items such as blankets,
soap, sleeping mats, buckets, jerry cans, hygiene kits,
toothbrushes and medicines for the migrants.

The Koranic pupils, known as Talebs, and their teachers, the
Marabout, fled the eastern Nigerian villages of Dougouri, Folkine,
Koyorom and Malfahtri three weeks ago, following clashes between
the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and Nigerian forces.

IOM recently sent an assessment team to N'Gbouboua. It found
children and adults living in wretched conditions, sleeping on the
ground in rough shelters that they had built themselves. They had
no access to clean water or sanitation and the children were
surviving by begging for food, water and other provisions from
villagers.

"This timely US funding will enable us to rescue these children
and help them to return home to their families," said IOM Chad
Chief of Mission Qasim Sufi.

Since the IOM assessment team returned from the area, which can
only be accessed from Chad by a 4WD vehicle on unmarked desert
roads and a ferry river crossing, more migrants, including
unaccompanied children, have continued to arrive in N'Gboubou from
Nigeria.

IOM is now working with the government of Chad, ICRC, WFP and
UNICEF to mobilize support for the stranded group. ICRC has offered
technical expertise on family reunification and child tracing and
WFP has volunteered food rations.

IOM will work with the Chadian Red Crescent / Red Cross to
establish the children's identity and locate their families. IOM
will then provide them with transport to their homes. IOM will also
transport a group of 160 Christian migrants from N'Gbouboua to
their homes in the south of the country.

For more information, please contact:

Qasim Sufi

IOM Chad

Tel: +23562900674

E-mail: "mailto:sqasim@iom.int">sqasim@iom.int