Reference :
V-P-TD-E-00591
Date :
25/05/2009
Caption :
N'djamena prison. A delegate explains to the Gendarmerie forces the ICRC role regard to security detainees and war prisonners.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
Extract from 29-05-2009 ICRC operational update
Chad: ICRC responds to recent fighting in the east
Heavy fighting between the Chadian army and armed opposition groups took place in eastern areas bordering Sudan at the beginning of May. The ICRC has delivered emergency aid to all victims – military or civilian – in particular, to wounded and detained people.
Since the outbreak of hostilities, the ICRC has:
- delivered medicines and other medical items to military and civilian medical facilities at Am Dam (the site of the bloodiest battle), Goz Beida, Abéché and N'Djamena to enable them to treat people wounded in the fighting. Four tents for casualty management were set up at N'Djamena's military hospital and gendarmerie barracks;
- transferred 20 wounded civilians and hors de combat fighters to health-care centres;
- performed emergency surgery on or otherwise treated 70 seriously wounded people thanks to its surgery team (a surgeon, an anaesthetist and two nurses);
- mobilized first-aid volunteers of the Red Cross of Chad to help nursing staff in N'Djamena medical facilities as soon as casualties began to arrive. Forty volunteers continue to work at the military hospital and gendarmerie barracks;
- visited over 240 detainees in order to monitor their treatment and conditions of detention and if necessary make recommendations for improvements to the detaining authorities, provided care for wounded detainees and supplied prisoners with sleeping mats, buckets, cooking pots and soap during the very first hours of their custody;
- recommended to the competent authorities and organizations that explosive remnants of war be cleared from areas where fighting took place as soon as possible, and raised awareness among those most at risk of the dangers posed by the lethal debris, so as to avoid accidents – especially involving children;
- distributed emergency supplies (clothing, tarpaulins, blankets, sleeping mats, buckets, metal pails, kitchen utensils and soap) to 160 people whose houses or other possessions were destroyed in the fighting, and started assessing whether other people need similar aid;
- prepared to repair the laboratory and roof of the hospital in Am Dam, which were damaged by shelling.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
2048x1536
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
