VZCZCXRO5833
PP RUEHBC RUEHBZ RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHKUK RUEHMA
RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0556/01 3271305
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231305Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7459
INFO RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0961
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NDJAMENA 000556 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/C 
STATE ALSO FOR S/USSES 
STATE ALSO FOR PRM/AFR 
NSC FOR GAVIN 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
LONDON FOR POL - LORD 
PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA 
ADDIS ABABA FOR AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF ASEC PREL PHUM SU CD
SUBJECT: CHAD HUMANITARIAN UPDATE, 16 - 22 NOV 2009 
 
REF:  N'DJAMENA 542 
 
¶1. (U) The following is an update of N'Djamena RefCoord's activities 
for the period of 16 - 22 NOV 2009. 
 
¶2. (U) In this edition: 
 
(SBU)  IRC SEEKS TO RE-STRUCTURE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT FOR OURE 
CASSONI 
(SBU)  UN HUMANITARIAN AIR SERVICE IN THE BLACK AGAIN 
(SBU)  UNHCR TO BRIEF DONORS ON 2010 PLANNING 
(SBU)  IFRC: BEST CASE FOR 2010 - "TRANSITION YEAR"; WORST CASE - 
"CHAOS" 
(SBU)  IOM SENIOR OPERATIONS OFFICER ARRIVES 
(SBU)  CALENDAR 
 
-------------------------- 
IRC SEEKS TO RE-STRUCTURE 
COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT FOR 
OURE CASSONI 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) International Rescue Committee (IRC) Chad Country Director 
briefed RefCoord 16 November on negotiations with UNHCR-Chad over 
IRC's 2010 activities in the Oure Cassoni refugee camp in northern 
Chad.  In the wake of IRC-Chad's long-running dispute with UNHCR 
over the proper handling of protection case information, IRC reports 
the NGO has been asked to maintain its activities in Oure Cassoni in 
providing primary health, education, and water/sanitation services. 
The Country Director stated that UNHCR-Chad intends to provide all 
protection services through additional UNHCR-Chad staff, both 
assigned to Oure Cassoni as well as covering the camp regionally 
from the more heavily-staffed Iriba sub-office that will begin 
operations at the new year.  In addition, UNHCR-Chad has suggested 
that IRC's role in camp management, which the NGO has undertaken 
from the camp's inception, should be turned over to the GoC's 
National Commission for the Welcome and Reinsertion of Refugees 
(Commission Nationale d'Accueil et de Reinsertion des Refugis  -- 
"CNAR").  IRC estimates that PRM funding for protection activities 
in its more than $2.4 million cooperative agreement with the NGO 
amounts to some $600,000.  The Country Director speculated that IRC 
could increase its education, youth, and vocational training 
programs for the duration of the cooperative agreement (through July 
2010, as well as continue some community services not tied to case 
management. 
 
---------------------------- 
UN HUMANITARIAN AIR SERVICE 
IN THE BLACK AGAIN 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) World Food Program (WFP) staff of the UN Humanitarian Air 
Service (UNHAS) briefed users and donors 19 November on the UNHAS 
financial position at the end of 2009, and operations plans for 
¶2010.  The air service had started 2009 with a projected budget of 
some $16.6 million.  Donor contributions were insufficient 
throughout the first eight months of the year, leaving the service 
over $1 million in deficit by mid-August and without operating funds 
for the rest of the year.  UNHAS implemented cost-cutting measures 
to bring total expenditures for 2009 down to an estimated $12.7 
million; emergency contributions from the European Commission 
Humanitarian Aid office (ECHO), PRM, Ireland, the United Kingdom, 
and Sweden brought total resources to $15.7 million, covering 
operating costs through the end of 2009 and up through roughly March 
2010, based on a new operations plan just approved at WFP 
headquarters (provided by email to PRM and OFDA). 
 
¶5. (SBU) UNHAS projects budgetary requirements for 2010 at $11.4 
million, considered sufficient to continue operations with a more 
efficient aircraft mix including a 37-passenger Dash 8 brought into 
service in October to good user reviews (greater cargo capacity, 
sufficient range for new direct flights from N'Djamena to deep field 
locations bypassing Abeche).  RefCoord suggested that, while the 
leaner budget and efficient aircraft mix were very positive 
developments, it appeared that UNHAS had not been listening to users 
who had been seeking greater access to the southern areas of Daha 
and Haraze, currently only served by the NGO Air Serv International. 
 
NDJAMENA 00000556  002 OF 004 
 
 
 ECHO also stressed the need to build service to these locations 
into the operations plan; the representative of Aviation Sans 
Frontiers (ASF) reminded the group that plans had been underway to 
extend the runway at the southern town of Doba to accommodate the 
shifting of UNHCR offices in the south from Gor to Doba, as well as 
to build a new airstrip at Daha through an income-generating 
activity for the refugees in the area, but discussions had tapered 
off without conclusion.  (NOTE: RefCoord learned later that UNHCR 
intends to begin serving Haraze airstrip with a 19-passenger 
Beechcraft B-1900D aircraft that, although part of the UNHAS fleet, 
is wholly funded from UNHCR and currently used for twice-weekly 
flights between N'Djamena, Moundou, and Sahr in the south.  UNHAS 
seemed unaware of UNHCR's intentions, and UNHCR representatives at 
the users group meeting did not mention it.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) WFP-Chad staff stressed the need for donors to provide the 
greatest possible contributions "up front", which would allow UNHAS 
to negotiate longer-term leases on aircraft at reduced costs. 
RefCoord emphasized the difficulty of organizing such a financial 
response based only on a few indicative slides, and pleaded for 
clear, disaggregated budgetary projections to accompany funding 
requests, so that decisions on contributions could be made based on 
complete information.  The ECHO representative lamented the 
continued unwillingness of the GoC to allow UNHAS to implement a 
cost-recovery system for financing.  The WFP-Chad Country Director 
stated his readiness to re-open negotiations, but stressed that the 
GoC at the working level were clear that any system allowing UNHAS 
to charge passengers for flights would change the air service's 
status to that of a commercial enterprise, resulting in a 
significant increase in landing and other operating fees.  He stated 
that changing this attitude would likely require political 
intervention at the highest levels of the Chadian authorities, and 
even then there would be no guarantee of success.  Finally, the user 
group agreed that there was insufficient humanitarian need to 
justify restoration of the cancelled weekly flights from N'Djamena 
to Yaounde, Cameroon, but asked UNHAS to work up a cost estimate of 
implementing two round-trip flights on consecutive weekends once per 
quarter. 
 
------------------------- 
UNHCR TO BRIEF DONORS ON 
2010 PLANNING 
------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) RefCoord met 19 November with the UNHCR-Chad Deputy Country 
Representative, and the Principal Program Administrator, at 
RefCoord's request for what was to be a camp-by-camp and 
partner-by-partner explanation of how UNHCR-Chad saw activities 
going forward in 2010.  Discussion instead focused on "FOCUS" -- the 
results-based management software now in use to carry out planning 
and budgeting for operationalizing the Global Needs Assessment. 
UNHCR-Chad colleagues admitted that Chad-based planning had been 
chaotic in the last several weeks, complicated by the implementation 
of UNHCR-Chad's structural reorganization -- still not finalized -- 
and the constant rotation in and out of Chad of senior staff for 
their 10-day R&R breaks every six to eight weeks.  UNHCR-Chad agreed 
that communication with donors and partners had been absent from the 
field as the team in-country crashed on implementing the new 
planning processes at the end of October and early November.  The 
Program Administrator said he was confident that the 1-day workshop 
given to NGO representatives the week of 09 November on the way in 
which they should present funding proposals had been effective; 
RefCoord noted that NGO partners had reported that they had nearly 
finalized proposals for 2010 under the old system, in collaboration 
with UNHCR-Chad field staff, when they were told they would have to 
start over with a results-based approach. 
 
¶8. (SBU) UNHCR-Chad colleagues agreed to RefCoord's proposal that 
they owed a full briefing and written explanations to donors on (a) 
the final shape of the staff reorganization, including an 
organizational chart, setting out the expected impact the new 
structure would have on operations; (b) the results framework coming 
out of the Chad-based 2010 planning process; (c) UNHCR-Chad's 
priority activities which they expected to fund out of their budget; 
(d) prioritized gaps requiring direct donor intervention; (e) 
UNHCR-Chad's intentions regarding greater Chadian national 
engagement and camp self-reliance; and (f) UNHCR's activities 
 
NDJAMENA 00000556  003 OF 004 
 
 
regarding the movement of Oure Cassoni camp.  The briefing is 
scheduled for 25 November. 
 
--------------------------------- 
IFRC: BEST CASE FOR 2010 -- 
"TRANSITION YEAR"; WORST CASE -- 
"CHAOS" 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) RefCoord met with International Federation of Red Cross and 
Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Chad Country Representative on 21 
November to discuss IFRC and Chadian Red Cross (Croix-Rouge 
Tchadienne -- CRT) operations in the Bredjing and Treguine camps 
around Farchana.  The Country Representative noted that he had 
pulled all international IFRC delegates out of their Hadjer Hadid 
office for security reasons, given that the IFRC were committed to 
operating without armed escorts, and the security conditions in the 
Farchana area were extremely uncertain.  The organization and their 
CRT partners had already lost two vehicles to criminals in recent 
weeks.  He characterized the CRT's camp management role in Bredjing 
and Treguine, in collaboration with IFRC, as uncertain, believing 
that UNHCR-Chad sought to turn this over to the CNAR.  He was also 
under the impression that UNHCR-Chad preferred a national NGO, the 
International Health Support Center (Centre de Support en Sante 
Internationale /Tchad -- "CSSI"), to take over primary health 
services.  However, he was unsure about these possible measures, 
having not had any direct word from senior UNHCR-Chad 
representatives.  He believed he would hear something in the coming 
week. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The IFRC Country Representative expressed the view that, 
in the best case scenario, IFRC and the international NGOs that 
would continue to work in the camps would be able to help the 
Chadian entities build capacity over the coming year to allow them 
to take on greater responsibilities in hosting Chad's refugee and 
IDP populations.  He feared, however, that the worsening security 
environment would limit the mentoring opportunities; that Chadian 
entities would in no way be immune from attack, and so would be 
greatly challenged to fulfill their new roles by both lack of 
capacity and the danger of the context; that a possible lack of 
consistent services would cause resentment and disruption in the 
camps themselves; and that the tendency seen in the past for Chadian 
partners to divert project resources from their designated uses 
could create significant difficulties. 
 
---------------------- 
IOM SENIOR OPERATIONS 
OFFICER ARRIVES 
---------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) RefCoord met 22 NOV with the newly arrived Senior 
Operations Officer for the International Organization for Migration 
(IOM).  The OpsOfficer, an American Citizen, has been assigned to 
Chad on a TDY basis through February 2010, coming from his recent 
post managing the Overseas Processing Entity for Iraq out of Amman, 
Jordan.  He expressed the hope that his assignment might become 
permanent as IOM moves forward to organize its presence in Chad. 
Reftel noted the need for a skilled OpsOfficer to relieve the 
pressure on an understaffed IOM operation in Chad, as well as the 
requirement for IOM to establish itself as an accredited 
international organization with the GoC.  The current acting Chief 
of IOM Mission informed RefCoord that, although an MOU accrediting 
IOM in Chad is ready and approved within the GoC's Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs (MOFA), IOM has been unable to both get on the 
Minister's calendar for a signing ceremony, and to organize the 
visit of an appropriately-qualified IOM official for the event. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Regarding the subject of the secure movement of hundreds 
of refugees between far-flung camps across eastern Chad, the new 
OpsOfficer expressed real concern about the idea of organizing such 
movements in a Phase IV security environment, noting that it is one 
thing to do so in Iraq, with the help of 130,000 American troops, 
and quite another in Chad.  RefCoord spent much of the meeting 
briefing on the operational realities, including Post's request to 
revise the Travel Warning for American Citizens in eastern Chad . 
The OpsOfficer wondered whether there has been any thought, in PRM, 
UNHCR, or IOM, as to how one "pulls the plug" on such a P-2 
 
NDJAMENA 00000556  004 OF 004 
 
 
resettlement scheme if tensions rise and turn to violence, perhaps 
driven by the eventual roll-out of a public information campaign to 
sensitize the affected refugee populations as to the structure of 
the resettlement plan. 
 
--------- 
CALENDAR 
--------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) RefCoord Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) travel has been 
delayed by security concerns in the Farchana area; the absence of 
key partner staff in the Iriba area; and cancellation of UNHAS 
flights due to the holidays surrounding the Muslim celebration of 
Aid-al-Adha, and the Chadian government's marking of the 
Proclamation of the Republic (28 NOV) and "Freedom and Democracy 
Day" (01 DEC). 
 
07-11 DEC (TBC) Proposed M&E Travel to Iriba 
19 DEC-02 JAN  RefCoord Annual Leave 
 
NIGRO