6 children killed in Chad

2009-06-03 15:56

Libreville - Unexploded weaponry killed six children in eastern Chad in the weeks after a rebel offensive early last month, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reported Wednesday.

The explosions on May 14 and 29 at Koukou Angarana and Goz Beida took place near the scene of the fighting and "all the victims were children", the UN agency said in a statement sent to Libreville.

"It is important to remember that after recent fighting in the east, several zones are polluted by these dangerous devices," added the Ocha, which said that mine-lifting teams were at work in the affected regions.

The Chadian rebels who stated that their goal was the capital Ndjamena in southwest Chad entered the country at the start of May from Sudan and passed close to Goz Beida, before being driven back by the Chadian army.

Unexplored ordinance

"There is a lot of unexploded ordnance in this region, whether it consists of grenades or rockets. They are poor quality weapons, often of Chinese manufacture," Rodolphe Liebeschitz of the Mag2 non-governmental organisation said.

Mag2 has four teams working in the sector, tracking down the weapons, which tend to explode when picked up and handled by children.

"There's no systematic count of the number of accidents but they are frequent", Liebeschitz added.

Last December, Ocha estimated that 77 people had been killed and at least 200 wounded by such weapons since 2007, and stated that "80% of the victims of landmines and UXO (unexploded ordnance) in Chad are children".

Eastern Chad has been the theatre of fighting between government forces and rebels crossing the border from either Sudan or Libya for more than 20 years. Current President Idriss Deby Itno overthrew his predecessor Hissene Habre in such an offensive in 1990.

- AFP