50,000 flee country; some seek refuge in churches

A Seventh-day Adventist Church leader in North Cameroon called for peace and stability during an interview with state-run Cameroon Radio Television February 2 following a bloody rebel assault of the Chadian capital of N'djamena.

Allah-Ridy Kone, president of the church for the region, also requested prayers and support from the international Adventist community for his native country.

Weekend violence spurred at least 50,000 Chadians to flee their country into neighbouring Cameroon as rebel forces staged an attempted coup near the palace of President Idriss Déby. Church leaders say some refugees have found shelter in Adventist churches in the border city of Kousseri.

Despite the withdrawal of rebel forces from the capital on February 5 -- amid international pressure and government resistance -- the lull in violence is not expected to last, said Abraham Bakari, director of Communication and Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Adventist church's Central African region.

Bakari described the situation as a "spiral of violence." Families were separated while fleeing and many refugees fell to stray bullets and shrapnel or drowned while trying to cross the Logone and Chari rivers into Cameroon, he reported.

Those who did escape need shelter and food, said Benjamin Hacheked, an Adventist Church official in North Cameroon -- the price of many groceries has quadrupled in Chad. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is assessing the situation and is expected to respond.

Chadian Adventist church officials headquartered in N'djamena are unharmed and church infrastructure -- including Béré Adventist Hospital -- was unscathed, Bakari said. No reports indicate whether church members were among the estimated 100 killed over the weekend.

Landlocked Chad, a French colony until 1960, endured three decades of civil war and Libyan invasions before securing peace in 1990. President Déby, who belongs to the country's ethnic minority, won a contested re-election in 2006.

The Adventist Church, a mainstream protestant denomination, was established in Chad in 1967. Currently, some 2,000 members worship in the country of nearly 10 million.