Chad
Casualties
Casualties
Casualties Overview
|
All known casualties by end 2016 |
At least 3,011 (1,179 people killed; 1,632 injured; 200 unknown) |
|
Casualties occurring in in 2016 |
27 (2015: 6) |
|
2016 casualties by survival outcome |
27 injured (2015: 4 injured; 2 unknown) |
|
2016 casualties by device type |
13 undefined mines; 12 explosive remnants of war (ERW); 2 undifferentiated mines/ERW |
The Monitor recorded 27 mine/ERW casualties in the Republic of Chad in 2016.[1] This constituted a significant increase from the six casualties reported in Chad in 2015 and marked a continuation of the fluctuations in annual casualty totals of previous years: 79 in 2014, and 20 in 2013.[2] However, as in previous years, given the lack of national data collection and reporting systems, it is probable that there were a greater number of new casualties that went unreported.[3] Similarly, data reported in previous years was inconsistent and not indicative of trends.[4]
There were 20 civilian casualties and seven military casualties. At least 85% of annual casualties were reported in northern Chad, in the provinces of Borkou (67% in 2015).
At least 3,011 mine/ERW casualties had been identified by the end of 2016: 1,179 people were killed, another 1,632 were injured, and 200 were unknown.[5]
Cluster munition casualties
No cluster munition casualties were identified for 2016, however, as of 1 July 2017, Chad had not submitted its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report for calendar year 2016. In 2015, there were at least four casualties, three girls and one boy, caused by cluster munition remnants.[6] The number of casualties caused by unexploded cluster submunitions or the use of cluster munitions in Chad remains unknown due to a lack of detailed and comprehensive data collection.[7]
[1] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form J, 1 March 2017.
[2] In 2013, the Monitor had reported nine casualties (one killed; eight injured) in Chad thanks to data provided by Zienaba Tidjani Ali, of the National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND), on 17 July 2014. However, in 2014, the CND reported that for 2013 it identified 20 victims (nine killed; 11 injured) in nine separate incidents. See, response to Monitor questionnaire by Zienaba Tidjani Ali, CND, 26 March 2015; and presentation of Chad, “18th International Meeting of Mine Action National Programme Directors and UN Advisors - Plenary Session Six: Victim Assistance and Mine/ERW Risk Education,” 17 February 2015.
[3] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Anne Catherine Roussel, Physical Rehabilitation Project Manager, ICRC, 1 August 2016.
[4] The CND reported 44 new mine/ERW casualties (13 killed; 31 injured) between 2010 and 2012, but did not provide differentiated data for each year. However, the total figure was inconsistent with previous CND reports of annual casualty rates and Monitor casualty data. In 2010, the CND reported 64 casualties for 2009, but by 2011 the 2009 casualty figure had been revised to 39. Email from Assane Ngueadoum, Technical Advisor for Strategic Planning and Operations, CND, 14 March 2011. Of the 131 casualties reported in Chad for 2008, 122 casualties were recorded by the CND and nine were identified through media monitoring from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008. Monitor analysis of CND, “General list of mine/ERW victims/2008” (“Liste générale des victimes des mines et autres engins non explosés/2008”), provided by Assane Ngueadoum, CND, 15 April 2009; and email from Assane Ngueadoum, CND, 22 May 2009.
[5] In 2008, Chad reported that by December 2007, 2,632 casualties were recorded (1,143 killed; 1,489 injured). There were 131 casualties reported in 2008, 39 in 2009, 28 in 2010, 34 in 2011, 15 in 2012, 20 in 2013, 79 in 2014, six in 2015, and 27 in 2016. See previous editions of the Monitor on the Monitor website; and Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form J, 1 March 2017.
[6] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form H, 5 March 2016.
[7] Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 48. It is likely that there have been unexploded submunition casualties in Chad. However, despite ERW incidents in regions contaminated by cluster submunitions, unexploded submunition casualties were not differentiated from other ERW casualties. Landmine Impact Survey data also showed that the most common activity at the time of each incident was tampering with ERW.