Iriba ( ar, هريبا) is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Wadi Fira Region Wadi Fira ( ar, وادي فيرا) is one of the 23 regions of Chad. Its capital is the town of Biltine. The region corresponds with the former prefecture of Biltine. Geography The region borders Borkou Region, Ennedi-Ouest Region and ...

of the African country of

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

. It is known as part of the Kobé Department as well as having its own prefecture and area court. It is currently being served by the Iriba Airport. Iriba has a desert climate with two distinct periods; dry and rainy seasons. During the rainy season, considerable amounts of

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

occur in the area, which disappears rapidly in the seasonal rivers named "Wadi". The winters (from December–February) can be quite cold, and the summertime is extremely hot and dry, with water shortage being a chronic problem in the area. The ethnicity of the Iriban people is referred to as "

Zaghawa Zaghawa may refer to: * Zaghawa people * Zaghawa language Zaghawa is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel) and northwestern Sudan (Darfur). The people who speak this language call it Beria, from ''Be ...

". The ethnic group lives on the two sides of the border in Chad and Sudan, with the local language being

, an afro-native language not related to the formal languages of the area, Arabic and French. Zaghawas have their traditional leadership, under the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

of Zaghawa. A large number of the refugees fled from the

Darfur Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...

area to the general vicinity of Iriba in the year 2004. The refugees are mainly from the same ethnicity and live in three large refugee camps in the area; namely Iridimi, Touloum, and Amnabak. The three camps accommodate over sixty thousand refugees. The refugee influx required extensive international presence for assistance and protection of the displaced population.

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

is the leading international agency in the area while

WFP The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольствен� ...

and many other NGOs help with the different aspects of life for the refugees.

References

{{reflist Wadi Fira Region Populated places in Chad

See also

References