Female Sudanese refugees face desperate times in Chad camps

Tens of thousands of Sudanese continue to flood into neighbouring Chad as the civil war in their country rages on unabated.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since mid-April last year has displaced over 11 million people with the country and outside.

Chad has taken in more than 700,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict and the hunger that comes with it.

In October, some 60,000 more people arrived following an escalation of fighting in the Darfur region, as well as the retreat of floodwaters.

Chad has long been a home to refugees fleeing conflicts in neighbouring countries, but this is the largest refugee influx in its history. There are now over a million Sudanese in Chad.

Close to 90 per cent of arrivals since April 2023, are women and children, arriving in desperate conditions, carrying few possessions, and scarred by the unimaginable violence they have survived or witnessed.

A staggering 71 per cent of refugees report surviving human rights violations in Sudan while fleeing.

Seventeen-year-old Ahlam Moussa Mahamat says she was at home when armed men came into the house.

“They took my sister and beat her up many times. Then they shot me. They shot me three times,” she said.

Ahlam is one of thousands of women now living in Farchana, one of the pre-existing camps in eastern Chad where new arrivals are relocated from the nearby border town of Adré.

It was opened in 2004 to shelter refugees fleeing war in Sudan. The camp is chronically overcrowded with a lack of infrastructure and basic services.

Despite best efforts, healthcare is threadbare and there is no hospital in the camp or vehicle to transport emergency cases to the nearest facility.

For pregnant women who experience complications, childbirth can turn into a deadly threat.

Women’s community leader, Souat Oumar,  said giving birth is the most pressing challenge they face at the camp.

“We struggle to help these women deliver their babies. Sometimes they come to me at home. If I have some money, I order a rickshaw to take them to a hospital,” she said.

“Sometimes the woman might be bleeding seriously, or have a miscarriage or other fatal issues. From that, some women might pass away.”

The sheer volume of people has put immense pressure on already overstretched humanitarian resources with agencies like the UNFPA facing critical funding shortfalls.

Its 2024 Chad humanitarian appeal of $23.6 million was only 36 per cent funded, meaning women went without supplies for safe births, and counselling services for sexual violence survivors was limited.

The United Nations agency said it needs $27.8 million to serve the most critical needs of women and girls in 2025.