In the middle of this dusty town there are road signs pointing to El Geneina (in Sudan, Darfur), to Faya on the road to Libya, to N'djamena in the west where the country accesses the Atlantic through Canmeroun and Nigeria, and finally a road to the south, to Bangui and the Congos. ..
I am now in Abeché in Eastern Chad, having flown here yesterday on the WFP plane with the head of education in UNHCR. Indeed she is the only permanent staff member for education in UNHCR. The rest are either consultants like me, or secondees mainly from NRC. S. with whom I am working here is one of these unsung heroes working away very hard covering the remotest of places.
Abeché is a near-desert town which is the Lokichoggio of Chad. A town full of UN and NGOs, little to do with Chad really. A brief visit downtown could have been Hargeisa, Djibouti, Fasher, Mandera etc. The traders speak Arabic for the most part and consider themselves part of the wider Arab world, the women trade only at petty levels, the same colourful blankets, cheap radios, sweet biscuits are found everywhere. Prices, in the Central Africa version of the CFA franc (same value as that of Abidjan) are high.
I have the distinct impression, that like in Nzerekoré, in Guinea, also NGO Centrale in its time, it will also lapse back into its own life with its infrastructure totally unchanged by years of NGO and UN activity or presence as there is no investment at all in infrastructure ('we are humanitarians, the government does development'), apart from the airport.
Water is short, electricity is generators, fuel is brought in especially. I am also reminded of Juba in the eighties.
There is a huge turnover of staff and a six weekly R and R (which I also get). Middle level UN staff are mainly west African and Congolese though I have already seen several Kenyans. I am back in UN procedures again with a long list of people to see and sign my check-list (but no desk to sit at yet). Radio call (but no radio yet).
In a very small room in the UNHCR guest house, but it is self contained at least. We can eat at a 'restaurant' over the road but I am taking my (Quaker) breakfast at least, chez moi.
You only get 15 kg on the flight (though Ethiopian had given me 40kg if I wanted it), so there is a juggling of luggage and (as always) what they tell you in N'djamena (you are bound to find X, you must carry Y) turns out to be not very correct, often because . I searched N'djamena for Quaker, or any oats (avoine) and bought four tins, only to find them in the first shop I came across in Abeché.
What else to say? Camps of French troops EFT (elements francais au Tchad), EUFOR French, Polish and other troops (Force Europeans), MINURCAT (equivalent of MONUC), helicopters, etc etc.
And, yes, the lorries of WFP and others which come here from … Tripoli … through Faya. There is a direct road to the Mediterranean, open and functioning. Full lorries in, illegal migrants out, I guess.
Oh, everyone tells us that we are expecting another attack from one of the many acronyms, JEM etc, since the rains are over. The rebels have as many acronyms as UN.
And we about to support once again a distance education programme by radio which is completely unnecessary since cassettes were invented some time ago and with cassettes you can listen whenever you want. Education by radio has tremendous staying power despite zero evidence that it works in these circumstances.
