Chad-Sudan border, the arrival of the rains aggravates the humanitarian crisis: thousands of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan will not have access to aid

ROME – In eastern Chad, in the Sila region and other border areas, thousands of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan risk losing access to humanitarian and health assistance due to the arrival of the rains. It should be considered that eastern Chad already hosts over 400,000 refugees from Sudan and new arrivals are putting further strain on the country’s public services and resources, already overtaxed. So there is the alarm raised by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) which has launched an emergency project to bring medical assistance to the local population and refugees living on the border between Chad and Sudan. During the rainy season the area usually becomes inaccessible and the refugees and local population will be completely isolated and cut off from any service or assistance, with devastating humanitarian consequences. Furthermore, given current sanitation conditions and poor access to safe drinking water, there are fears of an increase in infectious diseases and waterborne diseases.

Emergency responses. Humanitarian actors have already launched an emergency response to deliver aid and move people to safer areas before the rains arrive but aid is delayed. “Many refugees would like to move away from the border area, but there is not enough space for transfers; others would like to stay there, while still others continue to arrive from Sudan. More than 100,000 people have arrived in Chad since fighting began in Sudan, and we fear that with the arrival of the rains, those in this border area will be trapped and forgotten, with no access to essential services and no information on how to access them. ” says Audrey van der Schoot, MSF head of mission in Chad. “People could be forced to make unimaginable choices: stay in Chad without any assistance or return to Sudan, at the risk of further violence and consequences for their physical and mental health. Ongoing humanitarian interventions should prioritize the situation and needs of those people who will end up stranded at the border.”

The lack of shelter and water. Nearly 30,000 refugees and returned Chadians in the Sila region are receiving limited and slow-moving humanitarian assistance. Lack of shelter and water, as well as food shortages, has forced many refugees to seek help from the local community or other refugees. Mobile clinics for medical assistance to the displaced population. In response to this situation, MSF, in collaboration with the health authorities, has launched an emergency project in the Sila region to assist Sudanese refugees, the Chadian population who have returned to Chad and the local population with mobile clinics. MSF teams provide medical and preventive care to Andressa and Mogororo, including screening and treatment for acute malnutrition in children, sexual and reproductive health care, and transfers to the MSF-supported health center in Deguessa, or Koukou hospital for secondary health care. In the first three weeks alone, MSF medical teams treated 1,460 patients, most of them children suffering from malnutrition, respiratory infections, acute diarrhea and malaria, and provided pre- and post-natal care to 333 pregnant women.

Long journeys on foot exposed to violence. Many of those assisted, who fled Sudan from Foro Baranga and surrounding villages, told MSF teams that they had reached Chad on foot and had been exposed to extreme levels of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, torture, kidnapping, forced recruitment, looting, blackmail and destruction of property. Those who flee are forced to pay to enter Chad to prevent their possessions from being looted or to avoid death threats from militants. More than 70 Sudanese have been taken care of by MSF’s Adre facility in Ouaddai. Most of them had serious gunshot wounds following the clashes in West Darfur.

We are facing a double crisis. The humanitarian crisis in Chad continues to worsen, due to the consequences of extreme climate change, armed conflicts and recurring outbreaks of preventable and treatable diseases, thus increasing the vulnerability of the local community and the refugee population in the country. “We are facing a double crisis. People will continue to arrive from Sudan due to the conflict, exacerbating an already precarious situation in a country with limited resources. The humanitarian needs of Sudanese refugees and the local population will increase, therefore it is necessary to increase humanitarian aid and funding” concludes Audrey of MSF.