DAKAR (AlertNet) - United Nations officials will hold talks in Chad this week with the country's government after it requested an end to the U.N.'s mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, a move humanitarians fear could jeopardise their work.
A U.N. team from New York will arrive in Chad on Tuesday, according to a U.N. spokesman.
The central African state has informed the world body that the U.N. Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) should stop operating in the country on March 15, when its mandate is due to expire.
A military component of MINURCAT took over from a European Union military force known as EUFOR early last year, providing security for thousands of refugees, displaced persons and the humanitarians working for them.
The Chadian government has expressed concerns about delays in the deployment of MINURCAT, which is seen as one of the reasons for the force's inability to tackle spiralling insecurity for humanitarians in the country's volatile east. Only half of the expected 5,200 troops are already in Chad.
Disgruntled by what it sees as the U.N. force's inefficiencies, the government does not want its mandate to be extended.
"We understand that they have some concerns and we are ready to sit down with them to address those concerns and the discussions will form the basis of a recommendation to the Security Council," Michel Bonnardeaux, the MINURCAT spokesman, told AlertNet by telephone.
Given the levels of insecurity in eastern Chad, an abrupt exit of MINURCAT is of great concern to many humanitarian workers and particularly for U.N. agencies whose staff are not authorised to travel without military escorts provided by MINURCAT military and the special police unit (DIS) trained by the U.N.
"If MINURCAT were to leave tomorrow then they [U.N. agencies] would have to completely shut down their operation," a humanitarian worker who did not want to be named told AlertNet.
Most international aid agencies operating in Chad do not use armed escorts and have often called for more action to secure the area in the long-term. They see armed escorts as stop-gap measures that do not provide lasting solutions to the problem of insecurity.
"They would have to ask themselves questions like: what do we have to do now to ensure better security and protection to our beneficiaries and civilian populations" once the U.N's presence ends," the aid worker said. "Whether that comes in 6 months or in 18 months."
The number of attacks on humanitarians in the area doubled last year, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA).
Two workers from the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres were kidnapped and released in 2009 while an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) remains hostage. Aid groups and security analysts fear kidnappings could become a trend.
Security analysts, however, say that MINURCAT has contributed to some security in certain parts of eastern Chad. They expect the security situation to improve this year once MINURCAT reaches full strength.
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