By Jean Pierre Afadhali
Nearly 700,000 people have now fled from extreme violence in Sudan to eastern Chad. They have escaped atrocities, but now they are facing extreme neglect and daily struggle for survival, says Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an international humanitarian organisation.
One in three people in this deeply afflicted area is a refugee, added NRC in a press release that is raising alarm on the dire situation of Sudanese refugees.
According to the NRC, the extreme brutality of Sudan’s war has now displaced 9 million people within their own country. This is now the largest war-related displacement crisis in the world, surpassing even Ukraine and Syria.
Many people inside Sudan have been forced to flee violence more than once. Another 1.7 million people have escaped Sudan to neighbouring countries. In total, 10.7 million people have been forced to flee Sudan’s brutal conflict but almost no one has found safety, said NRC.
“Chad has received the largest share of people fleeing Sudan, escaping ethnically driven attacks throughout the Western Darfur region,” said the humanitarian organization in a news release. “The volume of arrivals has placed an unbearable strain on one of the world’s poorest countries. Refugees in Chad now find themselves lacking even the most basic support necessary for survival.”
Now, NRC is calling for an immediate and increased assistance for Chad and the broader Sudan crisis. The NGO is also urging the world’s leaders to end the violence in Sudan
“Here in Chad, I have heard horrifying testimonies of deliberate violence and atrocities. Families fleeing neighbouring Darfur have witnessed executions, rape, indiscriminate shelling, burning of camps, and massacres – just because of their ethnicity,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the NRC, visiting camps and Adré informal settlement in eastern Chad this week. “And yet many survivors have been utterly abandoned. They are forced to live in desperate, undignified conditions, under make-shift tents, lacking even basic assistance. How is it that these survivors have been so forgotten?”
Ten months into the crisis, the infrastructure in Chad is overwhelmed as a constant stream of refugees continues to enter the country. New arrivals have no choice but to improvise shelters in informal camps and hope for better housing later. Thousands of refugees lack sufficient food and safe drinking water, with people lacking even plastic containers to carry whatever water is available. Aid agencies are warning that the lack of support is setting the stage for humanitarian catastrophe.
Despite a long history of people escaping violence in Darfur by crossing into Chad, both the scale and rate of the current displacement is unprecedented, said NRC. The volume of arrivals has placed an unbearable strain on one of the world’s poorest countries. More people have fled to Chad from Sudan in the last 10 months than during the entire Darfur war in 2003. In Adré, the city closest to the Darfur border, 150,000 refugees are living in a self-constructed informal settlement. Refugees now outnumber locals by more then two to one in Adré.
Sudan is said to be the world’s largest displacement crisis. Within Sudan over 9 million people have been displaced, sometimes more than once. Outside Sudan, 1.7 people have fled to other countries surrounding Sudan. In total, 10.7 million people have been displaced by the Sudan crisis.
