A man does laundry on the banks of the Chari River in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Chad remains one of the world's poorest countries and many residents of N'Djamena make a living by doing laundry by hand in the river. Life has returned to normal here after a violent coup attempt in February, which claimed more than 700 lives.
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On Avenue Charles de Gaulle, the main street in N'Djamena, most trees have been cut down by government for security reasons, after rebels allegedly hid in or behind the trees during the coup attempt in February. More than 3000 rebels entered N'Djamena and held most of the city for two days before retreating. It was the second coup attempt against President Idriss Déby in two years.
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Déby is building a trench of some 40km around the eastern side of N'Djamena. Although officials told City Press the trench is for water, a water canal already exists nearby, and Chadians mostly believe it is a defense trench meant to keep rebels out if there is another attack on the capital before the rainy season starts in June. Only a few roads remain into N'Djamena from the east – the direction from which the rebels attacked two months ago.
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Cachou Mahamat Oabraul (front right) lives near Déby's trench. He described to City Press how the trench has split local communities in two. One of his neighbours has closed down his milk trading business because the trip to the neighbouring town now takes more than two hours through military check points.
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A man watches as a bulldozer cleans up the rubble after an estimated 15,000 people's houses were destroyed by the Chadian government in N'Djamena after the rebel assault in February. Government says the houses were "illegal structures". Residents whose houses were destroyed, say they were targeted because they had welcomed the rebels into N'Djamena.
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Girls walk past the rubble of some of the houses that the government destroyed after the rebel attack in February.
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Madiri Kodi Oumar (71) sits in the remains of his house that was destroyed by the Chadian government after the rebel assault of N'Djamena in February.
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After visiting N'Djamena, City Press took a trip with the United Nations and the World Food Programme (WFP) to Abeche in the east of Chad. In the area around Abeche, more than 250,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur region have settled since 2003, unable to go home because of continued violence in Darfur. Abeche is the hub of the humanitarian intervention operation in the east of Chad.
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Opelo Nke (27) is one of several South African pilots who are flying for the WFP and other humanitarian agencies in the east of Chad. Here he is doing a final engine check before take-off to Goz Beida in the southeast of Chad.
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At Abeche airport, young Chadian government soldiers keep guard. Some are hardly 18. They drive around in town at high speed in Toyota Land Cruiser pick-ups, with heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades strapped to the back. "We have old weapons, while the rebels have brand new bazookas," one soldier told City Press. The rebels are largely funded and armed by the government of Sudan.
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Also at Abeche airport, a Hercules 160 military cargo plane of the European Union peace force in Chad arrives. Eufor, as the force is known, is deploying more than 3000 troops in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) to help protect humanitarian aid workers and civilians from bandits and rebels.
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In Abeche town centre, the local market sells second hand clothes from Europe and America. Traders told City Press they fear another rebel attack, and that all they want is peace.
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On the road east from Abeche to Farchana, near the border with Darfur, a young woman travels by donkey. Infrastructure in this part of Africa is extremely limited and water is often dug by hand from deep wells in the sand. Donkeys are used to transport goods to and from markets.
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Outside the Farchana refugee camp, that houses nearly 20,000 Darfuri refugees, these women were waiting for treatment at a clinic run by the international charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). The clinic provides refugee and local women with a clean, safe environment in which to give birth and receive medical care that is otherwise unavailable.
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A refugee woman in the waiting area at the MSF hospital at Farchana.
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Inside the refugee camp, two girls walk home after school. The camp boasts a school, a market, water reservoirs and services provided by international humanitarian organisations.
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Harira Jibril Mohamat has lived in the camp at Farchana for almost five years. She says it is too dangerous to go back to her village in Darfur. Some Chadians, however, say refugees have better lives than local inhabitants, who rely on a dysfunctional government for basic services.
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Kaltoma Ibrahim Abdalla spends hours each day collecting wood outside the camp to sell to other refugees. During these trips, women often become the victims of sexual violence. The UN recorded a doubling in reported rapes at refugee camps last year.
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On the road back to Abeche from Farchana, people make their way home before the sun sets and a curfew kicks in. These roads will soon become impassible for days at a time when the rainy season starts in June.
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Outside Abeche, women carry firewood home on donkeys – a ritual they will perform again the next day.
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