Amid rising tensions and reported preparations for armed attacks in Chad, WFP warned on election day in Chad that food is becoming a serious issue for some 70,000 people who have either fled the continuous armed incursions in the east of the country or are resident there. The closure of the border between Chad and Sudan following the rebel assault on the capital in April could also have a serious impact on WFP operations in West Darfur, where the agency is currently feeding a total of 500,000 people.

UNHCR has expressed alarm over growing insecurity along the Chad-Sudan border, where a raid on Monday by 150 armed men just a few kilometres from a refugee camp left four Chadian civilians dead and five others wounded. The Chadians were killed in an attack near the village of Dolola, in south-eastern Chad. Dolola is near UNHCR's refugee camp at Goz Amir, which currently shelters some 17,700 Sudanese refugees from Darfur.

The International Federation of Journalists has called for the immediate release of Tchanguiz Vatankhah, director of Radio Brakoss (at 600 km of N’Djamena) and President of the Chadian Union of Private Radios (URPT). "Tchanguiz Vatankhah has been held incommunicado since 28 April and only today has the Deputy Minister for Human Rights informed us that Vatankhah is at the Central Police Station of N’Djamena," declared Evariste Ngarlem Toldé, President of the Chadian Union of Journalists. "No official reason has been given for this arrest.”

Chad and the World Bank have struck a new and temporary deal on how the Central African country should use its oil revenues. Under the agreement, Chad will pull its threat to cease oil production while the World Bank will unlock $124 million in frozen loans and release oil revenues, a portion of which will go to help Chad's poor.

Hunger and militia attacks in the remote border areas of eastern Chad have driven more than 11,000 Chadians to seek international assistance and stretched resources meant for Sudanese refugees, according to aid agencies. According to the UN an estimated 50,000 Chadians are displaced in eastern Chad, but until a recent wave of attacks on the government of President Idriss Deby by rebel forces nearly all the internally displaced people (IDP) had managed on assistance from friends and family.

Ahmat should be studying for his high school exams but the fear of more fighting is uppermost in his mind nearly a week after pro-government forces repelled a rebel assault on the Chadian capital. "That day for me was 'black Thursday'," he said, referring to the fighting that rocked N'Djamena last week as rebels trying to overthrow Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno battled with pro-government forces in and around the city. Residents fear a fresh outbreak of fighting is inevitable, despite the return of calm to N'Djamena amid patrols by the state army.
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* Rebels 'will not delay' Chad poll

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the brutal treatment of BBC correspondent René Dillah Yombirim, severely beaten by soldiers before he was released several hours later. Public radio journalist and French service correspondent for the BBC, Yombirim was arrested by members of the presidential guard on 15 April.

One of the world's great lakes is disappearing. Lake Chad - shared by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger - has receded to less than 20% of its former volume. Global warming is being blamed, as well as water extraction. The land is parched dry and dusty but the first hint that there is water comes with the growing numbers of Caltropis dotting the landscape. These strange, twisted plants have deep tap roots, and where they grow water is usually not far away. Just 30 years ago, water covered the whole area. Baga was a waterfront town. Now it is stranded many miles from the lake as the land around it becomes desert. The Sahara is moving southwards.

The government of Chad has backed down on threats to expel 200,000 Sudanese refugees after linking a series of rebel attacks to Khartoum, but has closed the border with Sudan, threatening aid distribution. The announcements came after a week of attacks on Chadian towns by rebels seeking to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby, culminating in a major assault on the capital N’djamena which killed and injured more than 200.

Chad's government said on Wednesday its army had regained control of a major town which rebels said they had attacked and occupied the previous day. But the exact military situation at Mongo - 400 km (250 miles) east of the capital N'Djamena - and nearby Bitkine remained confused, with one rebel leader saying his fighters still "controlled the zones" around the towns. He said their objective was to push on to the capital.

Over the past year, the security situation along the border that Chad shares with Darfur has significantly deteriorated. Since September 2005, Chadian militias and Sudanese Janjaweed have attacked Chadian villages, resulting in the displacement of nearly 30,000 people. As recently as April 10th, a rebel group, the United Front for Democratic Change (FUCD), allegedly attacked several villages and a refugee camp near Goz Beida, a town near the border in southeastern Chad.

For the first time since multiparty politics came to Chad the main opposition has declined to put forth a contender in a presidential election, this time around unanimous in calling for citizens to shun the process. Incumbent President Idriss Deby risks becoming the only serious candidate. As the deadline for candidates passed at midnight on Friday only the Agriculture Minister and three representatives of political parties more or less aligned with the ruling party had submitted their names – along with President Idriss Deby - for the 3 May poll.

The European Parliament today (March 16) called on Senegal to bring Hissène Habré to trial or extradite the former dictator of Chad to Belgium, where he is wanted to stand trial. Habré's victims and their supporters cheered the European Parliament's decision. Habré, who fled to Senegal in 1990 after an eight-year rule marked by widespread atrocities, was first indicted in 2000 in Senegal.

Chad said on Wednesday it had foiled a coup attempt by a group of soldiers who had been plotting to shoot down President Idriss Deby's plane. Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said two high-ranking plotters, a colonel and a commander, had been captured while others were fleeing towards the east of the country with government forces in hot pursuit.

Internews Network is currently seeking a Resident Advisor for Gender Issues Reporting for our community radio project and production studio in Chad. The project is designed to ensure that residents of the region (both permanent and temporary) receive accurate, up-to-date information on events and activities taking place within the region. Reports will be disseminated in multiple local languages in order to reach the greatest number of people.

A new report highlights the role of the European Investment Bank as financer of so called "development" projects in the South, including Africa. The question raised is: development for whom? The research, entitled "The European Investment Bank In The South. In Whose Interest?", gives insights around that question.

The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which has been trickling into Chad for the better part of three years, is now bleeding freely across the border, says a report from Human Rights Watch. A counterinsurgency carried out by the Sudanese government and its militias against rebel groups in Darfur, characterized by war crimes and “ethnic cleansing,” has forcibly displaced almost two million civilians in Darfur and another 220,000 people who have fled across the border into Chad. The same ethnic “Janjaweed” militias that have committed systematic abuses in Darfur have staged cross-border raids into Chad, attacking Darfurian refugees and Chadian villagers alike, seizing their livestock and killing those who resist.

Internews Network is currently seeking a Resident Advisor for Gender Based Violence Reporting for our community radio project and production studio in northern Chad. The project is designed to ensure that residents of the region (both permanent and temporary) receive accurate, up-to-date information on events and activities taking place within the region. Reports will be disseminated in multiple local languages in order to reach the greatest number of people.

Chad's fight against AIDS is set to be one of the main victims if a standoff between the government and the World Bank drags on, senior UN officials have warned. The World Bank recently suspended all its loans to the impoverished landlocked country because of a decision by President Idriss Deby to tamper with an agreement governing how revenues from its fledgling oil project can be spent.

The rhetoric may be flying, with outbursts over "a fool's agreement" and "neo-colonialist and imperialist behaviour," but most observers believe the oil row between the Chadian government and the World Bank will end in a face-saving compromise. The stand-off began in December when Chad's parliament passed an amendment to the law governing how oil revenues can be spent, prompting the World Bank to suspend $124 million in loans and cut the flow of petrodollars to the landlocked, impoverished country.