The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has urged partners to provide immediate assistance to nearly 185,000 Sudanese who have crossed the border into Chad and continue to await relocation from dangerous border areas, particularly the border town of Adre. The call comes as more than 9.2 million people have fled the war in Sudan, with at least 7.2 million internally displaced and some 2 million seeking refuge across the border
“The first rains have started in Adre. It is an expected but devastating news as tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees still do not have suitable shelter to protect themselves from the impending rainy season,” said Laura Lo Castro, UNHCR Representative in Chad, in a statement Tuesday.
In Sudan's western neighbor Chad, rains often bring catastrophic flooding, making roads impassable and limiting humanitarian access.
“It's paramount that we scale up the response now and immediately relocate as many refugees as possible to safer areas away from the border and assist those we will not be able to move,”.
The UN agency said it was racing against the clock along with its partners to complete a new settlement where refugees could receive the full range of protection and assistance, but an additional US$17 million was urgently needed to relocate and house 50,000 refugees there.
“Families who have crossed the border into Chad have lost everything. They rely on relief assistance to cover their most basic needs. We call on the generosity of our donors to urgently cover the most critical gaps to protect and save lives,” Lo Castro added.
Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has forced some 600,000 people to flee into Chad. They first settle in overcrowded, spontaneous settlements along the border, where they sleep in makeshift shelters. The new arrivals - 88 percent women and children - often arrive in poor health, malnourished, traumatized and wounded, suffering horrific human rights abuses, including physical assault and gender-based violence, often with only the clothes they are wearing.
People who are fleeing need essential protection services and life-saving assistance, including mental health and psychosocial support, shelter, food, water, sanitation and health services.
To date, UNHCR and its partners have established 5 new refugee settlements and expanded 10 existing ones, which are already home to more than 336,000 Sudanese refugees.
The UN Refugee Agency is coordinating the emergency response to forcibly displaced people crossing the border in support of the Government of Chad, and is leading a colossal effort to meet urgent needs and avert a major humanitarian catastrophe with few resources.
Aid agencies have been forced to reallocate supplies and funds from other programs and scale down operations, resulting in lower standards in all settlements. On average, people have access to 8 liters of clean water per day, below the 15-liter standard. Latrines built for 20 people are used by 60. There is one doctor for every 25,000 people, more than double the standard ratio.
The UN and partner relief agencies urgently need $630.2 million to meet the needs of Sudanese crossing the border. Only 6 percent of funding has been secured so far.
Also on Tuesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that in neighboring Sudan, hundreds of thousands of civilians in El Fasher, North Darfur state, are facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation. Many parts of the city have been left without electricity or water since fighting escalated on May 10.
Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that the situation in North Darfur's capital is getting worse by the day as casualties mount. OCHA said a growing proportion of the population has limited access to necessities and essential services, including food and health care.
Heavy fighting broke out in El Fasher in early May between the rival Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and in recent weeks there have been fierce clashes in and around the town, including deliberate attacks on civilians, the burning of residential areas, and indiscriminate bombing and shelling.
“We are also receiving deeply worrying reports that medical facilities, displacement camps and critical civilian infrastructure have been impacted by the hostilities,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that the conflict has displaced nearly 58,000 people from El Fasher since April 1. Many more, including children and the elderly, are unable or prevented from moving to safer areas, with many civilians trapped in the town with no access to aid.
Escalating fighting in recent days has resulted in many civilian deaths and injuries, damaged the only functioning hospital in the state, and hampered humanitarian access to the town and beyond. The international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is supporting El Fasher's South Hospital, which is overwhelmed and running out of supplies.
According to MSF, South Hospital has been hit twice in the past few days by mortars and shelling, killing and injuring patients and leaving no safe place in the city. The hospital has received more than 1,000 wounded since fighting began in the city on May 10.
“Sadly, 145 of these patients were in critical conditions and died from their injuries. Now the hospital finds itself on the front lines, with a significant risk of going out of service,” Abdifatah Yusuf Ibrahim, MSF project coordinator, said in a statement on Tuesday.
An MSF staff member was killed on Saturday when his house, close to the city's main market, was hit by shelling.
The medical humanitarian organization warned that the intense, non-stop fighting in El Fasher leaves no safe place for civilians in the city, as patients and medical staff increasingly become part of the staggering civilian toll.
“We see a bloodbath unfolding before our own eyes in El Fasher. The intensity of the fighting is leaving civilians with no respite and now hospitals are being increasingly engulfed in the fighting, making it harder and harder to treat the wounded,” said Claire Nicolet, MSF program manager for Sudan.
Humanitarian workers have been struggling for weeks to reach El Fasher, where at least 800,000 civilians are sheltering, many of them displaced from other parts of Darfur that have fallen to the RSF.
The civil war between the SAF and the RSF is being conducted with new levels of violence and brutality against civilians, particularly in the states of Darfur. The RSF in particular has been accused of mass killings and rape as a means of warfare. However, both parties to the conflict have been accused of serious war crimes.
Thousands are being ethnically targeted, killed, injured, abused and exploited, forcing more and more people to flee the violence. Gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual violence, is being used as a tool of war and is no longer concentrated in Khartoum or Darfur, but has spread to other parts of the country.
Sudan is experiencing a humanitarian emergency of epic proportions that many have called the world's largest man-made crisis, with half the population in need of life-saving assistance, tens of thousands killed and injured, and millions uprooted from their homes. Most of the population has no access to health care.
Aid agencies say the war is having catastrophic consequences for a population of nearly 49 million people - with more than 24.8 million in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance. Among those in need are more than 14 million children. In the Darfur region, at least 9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Overall, more than 9.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes since April last year. More than 7.2 million men, women and children - including refugees already living in the country - are displaced within Sudan. Approximately 2 million people have fled the country. Of these, more than 1.8 million have crossed into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic.
Further information
Full text: Funding shortfalls leave tens of thousands of Sudanese fleeing conflict stranded at border entry points in Chad as the first rains arrive, UNHCR, press release, published May 28, 2024
https://www.unhcr.org/africa/news/press-releases/funding-shortfalls-leave-tens-thousands-sudanese-fleeing-conflict-stranded
Full text: Nowhere safe from violent fighting in El Fasher as hospitals are repeatedly hit, MSF, press release, published May 28, 2024
https://www.msf.org/sudan-nowhere-safe-violent-fighting-el-fasher-hospitals-are-repeatedly-hit