Sudanese refugees are continuing to flee from Darfur in western Sudan into Chad to escape militia attacks, according to the NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). While the numbers remained unclear, pockets of people continued to cross the border every night when they could get across more easily, Sonia Peyrassol, MSF Operational Coordinator for Chad, told IRIN. Border officials appeared to be trying to stop the flow, she said, but it was unclear whether it was on the Sudanese or the Chadian side.

Hundreds of Sudanese refugees are streaming into Chad to escape new air attacks, reportedly by government forces, in Sudan's war-scarred Darfur region, pushing the number of Sudanese who have recently fled to the neighbouring country to nearly 70,000, according to the UN refugee agency.

The government of Chad has denied claims by the main rebel group to have captured the airport at the northern town of Bardai. The rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJT) said earlier its forces had taken the airport, surrounded the town and killed at least 35 government troops.

Some 65,000 refugees who fled recent fighting in western Sudan are living out in the open in northern and north-eastern Chad with no food, safe drinking water or healthcare. These are some of the findings of an assessment mission comprising officials of the UN refugee agency, the UN World Food Programme, and two Chadian members of parliament who have just returned from visiting the refugees.

''They say oil is spurting out of the ground, but I haven't seen it yet,” says Faustin Gayande, a young man from the Chadian capital of N'djamena. He fears the oil revenue will not trickle down to the poor as a result of corruption and political repression. “There is a proverb from my area which says that when you catch a silurid, you've got to grab it by the head if you want to hang onto it; if you hold it by the tail, it could slip away. So Chadian oil is like a silurid because I haven't been able to grab it,'' says Gayande.

Chad, one of the world's poorest countries, is set to join the elite club of oil-producing nations Tuesday as black gold begins flowing into a pipeline towards a terminal in the Atlantic Ocean off Cameroon. The multi-billion dollar project, co-funded by the World Bank and a consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil, is expected to generate up to 250,000 barrels of oil a day when it reaches full operating capacity. But promises of riches for the landlocked desert country of eight million, where per capita income is well under a dollar a day, have met with scepticism among environmental and human rights groups, as well as opposition groups who fear that little of the newfound oil wealth will trickle down to the poor.

A lack of adequate health care and an increase in migration and prostitution that has accompanied the construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline route in Cameroon and Chad have created ideal conditions for the spread of HIV, the Los Angeles Times reports in the second article in a two-part series on the pipeline.

The Chad-Cameroon petroleum project was approved by the World Bank in June 2000 after more than three years of intense discussions between oil multinationals, the Bank, Bank member governments and NGOs from the South and the North. In response to the grievances received, the World Bank proposed a framework to impose social and environmental rules on the multinationals, and build the capacity of Cameroonian and Chadian governments to enable them to manage project-related opportunities and risks. The failure to respect promises in the construction phase is a cause for concern for the project's future. There are already talks of expanding the oil exploitation zone to the east of Chad, north of the Central African Republic and north of Cameroon. As the World Bank will have no means to exert pressure on the consortium it is hard to think that the operations will respect people and nature more than in the past three years. The major merit of the project is to have confirmed that under authoritarian regimes there is a fundamental incompatibility between poverty alleviation objectives and oil exploitation activities.

International NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday that signs of malnutrition had been observed among an estimated 41,000 refugees from Central African Republic (CAR) who have fled to Chad since November 2002.

The scope for corruption in the Chad-Cameroon pipeline will be evaluated jointly by l'Action Tchadienne pour l'Integrite (ATI), Transparency International's contact group in Chad, and Transparency International Cameroon (TIC), it was agreed at a meeting on 16 February 2003.

Nadjikimo Bénoudjita, publisher of the weekly Notre Temps, and Mbainaye Bétoubam, the paper's deputy editor-in-chief, were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined two million CFA francs ($3,300) in damages and interest on 6 February 2003.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has hailed the waiver of ex-President Hissene Habre's immunity by the Chadian government, saying it would pave the way for his prosecution in Belgium. It also opens the way for his indictment and extradition from Senegal where he lives in exile, HRW said in a news release.

The government of Chad recognises health and nutrition as major influences on children’s educational success. But before planning school health services, they need to know the extent of health problems among Chad’s schoolchildren. Assisted by researchers from the Partnership for Child Development at Imperial College London, they conducted the first nationwide health survey of school-age children.

The Chadian Ministry of Information reported last Friday that rebels had attacked an airport in the north, killing four soldiers and destroying two attack helicopters and a bomber.

Africa's largest development project, a 650-mile, £2.8bn oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon, is being criticised for damaging the interests of the poor - the people it was supposed to help. Embarrassed World Bank officials have already admitted that the notoriously corrupt Chad government has spent the first £10m of grant money it received from the consortium on arms for its security forces rather than on the educational and development projects for which the money was intended.

The World Bank has decided that it will continue its support for a controversial project designed to bring oil wealth and development to Cameroon and Chad, two of the world's poorest countries. But on the ground in western Cameroon protests grow about the pipeline that will bring oil from Chad to the coast. Local people argue that the project has failed to bring the social benefits expected. The involvement of the bank, in the face of misgivings expressed by independent inspectors, has raised expectations on issues such as compensation for environmental damage and terms of employment.
* Related link: The World Bank's own Inspection Panel has backed many of the complaints by non-governmental organizations about a major oil pipeline in West Africa. See http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/environment/e3004chadcam.html

The construction of the Cameroon-Chad pipeline has given rise to environmental, health, social and developmental concerns that need to be addressed before the facility becomes operational, two Cameroonian NGOs reported.

The interior minister of the Central African Republic (CAR), Joseph Mounzole, has issued a message of reassurance to Chadians living on CAR territory following clashes along the common border on Tuesday.

The Chadian Parliament has passed a law guaranteeing protection for the reproductive health and rights of its citizens. The new law, adopted on 20 March, draws mainly from a regional document prepared at a meeting of West African parliamentarians in Dakar in 1999. Under the terms of the new law, it would be an offence to engage in any form of sexual violence, including female genital cutting, forced marriage, domestic violence or sexual slavery.

A Chadian woman lawyer who represents victims of the regime of former president Hissene Habre, has received the 2002 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Amnesty International reported on Thursday.