Rainy season threatens to cut off aid for refugees in Chad

“Many refugees want to move away from the border area, but there is not enough space for them to relocate,” said van der Schoot. “At the same time, there are others who wish to remain where they are, in addition to continuing arrivals from Sudan. People may be left to make unimaginable choices: To stay without any assistance or to return to Sudan where they would be exposed to more violence and physical and psychological harm. The ongoing humanitarian [aid] should prioritize the needs of people [who] will eventually become stranded at the border.”

Refugees and returnees in Sila region are receiving limited and slow humanitarian assistance. The lack of shelter, water, and food forced many refugees to ask other refugee families or people from the host community to share their limited resources.

In response, MSF launched an emergency project in cooperation with local health authorities to provide medical and preventive care to Sudanese refugees, Chadian returnees, and the host community at Andressa and Mogororo refugee sites. MSF’s mobile clinics screen and treat acute malnutrition in children, provide sexual and reproductive health care, and refer people needing a higher level of care to the MSF-supported Deguessa health center or Koukou hospital.

In the first three weeks, MSF’s medical teams treated 1,460 patients, most of them children suffering from malnutrition, respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhea, or malaria—all illnesses stemming from precarious living conditions. We also provided antenatal and postnatal care to 333 women.

MSF mobile clinic teams in Sila have heard devastating stories from refugees who fled from Foro Baranga and other villages to the south of West Darfur, Sudan, which is only a few kilometers from Chad’s border. Most had arrived on foot. Survivors were in shock after witnessing or experiencing extreme violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, torture, kidnapping, forced recruitment by armed groups, looting, blackmail, and property destruction. They also reported being stopped by militants at the border demanding payment to enter Chad and threatening to rob or kill them.

MSF teams have also provided care to more than 70 injured Sudanese people in its health facility in Chad’s Ouaddai’s Adre region. Most of the wounded arrived with severe gunshot wounds sustained during clashes in West Darfur. Many others were left behind, unable to travel to Chad or receive medical treatment.  

The local communities in Chad’s eastern border regions are also impacted by the conflict in Sudan. People living here are unable to seek health care during the rainy season or access markets in Sudan—a significant source of their livelihoods. This has caused prices of food and commodities to soar in the area, which already experiences high rates of malnutrition and where access to health care is limited. The conflict in Sudan adds another layer to the challenges they face, including extreme weather changes and recurrent outbreaks of preventable and treatable diseases.

“We are facing a crisis on top of another crisis,” said van der Schoot. “An urgent scale-up of the humanitarian programming and funding for refugees from Sudan is needed, but the needs of the host community and other refugees in eastern Chad should be prioritized equally in this humanitarian response.”