Photos: Sudan’s Violence Fuels Refugee Crisis in Chad
By Sharon Samber
HIAS.org
May 31, 2023
Sudanese refugees from the Tandelti area who crossed into Chad, at Koufroun, near Echbara, are seen on April 30, 2023. (Gueipeur Denis Sassou /AFP via Getty Images)
A member of a HIAS focus group talks with Sudanese Refugee girls about sexual and gender-based violence in Labandafac, eastern Chad, on April, 29, 2023. (Amadi Kahaye/HIAS)
Relief items kits are distributed to newly arrived Sudanese refugees at the Madjigilta site in Chad’s Ouaddaï region, on the border with Sudan on May 2, 2023. (Colin Delfosse/UNHCR)
Sudanese refugees from the Tandelti area who crossed into Chad, in Koufroun, near Echbara, gather for an aid distribution on April 30, 2023. (Gueipeur Denis Sassou/AFP via Getty Images)
Hundreds of newly arrived Sudanese refugees wait for the distribution of UNHCR relief kits at the Madjigilta site in Chad’s Ouaddaï region, on the border with Sudan, on May 2, 2023. (Colin Delfosse/UNHCR)
A HIAS volunteer delivers a lesson about sexual and gender-based violence to Sudanese refugees in Dize Berte, eastern Chad on the border with Sudan on May 2, 2023. (Amadi Kahaye/HIAS)
HIAS teams and partners prepare to distribute relief kits to newly arrived Sudanese refugees at the Madjigilta site in Chad’s Ouaddaï region, on the border with Sudan on May 2, 2023. (Colin Delfosse/UNHCR)
Displaced Sudanese refugees stand next to non-food items distributed by the United Nations at the Kufrun site in the Ouaddai region of Chad. Most of those arriving are women and children, who were sheltering out in the open on April 30, 2023. (Colin Delfosse/UNHCR)
Hundreds of newly arrived Sudanese refugees wait for a food distribution at the Kufrun site, Ouaddai region, in Chad. The majority of the new arrivals fled violence and insecurity in Tindelti, Sudan, located a few hundred meters across the border. Most of those arriving are women and children, who were sheltering out in the open on April 29, 2023. (Colin Delfosse/UNHCR)
Sudanese refugees from the Tandelti area who crossed into Chad, in Koufroun, near Echbara, gather for aid distribution on April 30, 2023. (Gueipeur Denis Sassou / AFP via Getty Images)
The crisis in Sudan, which began in mid-April with armed clashes between warring factions in the capital, Khartoum, has now become a humanitarian crisis for the region — notably in neighboring Chad.
As of May 30, over 90,000 people in Sudan have crossed the border into Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries with low rates of access to drinking water, basic sanitation, and paved roads. HIAS, which has been operating in Chad since 2005, is providing food, cash, and housing supplies to those seeking refuge.
HIAS will be providing emergency relief in Chad for the next six months. “We are active along the border in villages right now and we will have staff in place in any newly constructed camps,” said Patrick Culver, HIAS’ Emergency Operations Manager. “We also continue to educate and sensitize the communities in gender-based violence issues and we are providing psychological first aid to new arrivals.”
HIAS Chad reports that it is difficult to get supplies to certain areas and that the onset of the rainy season in July will create additional challenges. In parts of Sudan’s Darfur region, there are reports of entire villages having been burned to the ground by marauding militias. On Wednesday, Sudan’s army withdrew from talks to establish a full ceasefire, raising the possibility that fighting will intensify. If that happens, over a million refugees and migrants could eventually cross to neighboring countries.
HIAS Chad continues to provide community-based protection services, as well as gender-based violence mitigation and response and mental health support, in 13 camps as well as the Kerfi site in Eastern Chad to newly and previously displaced people.
