Humanitarian fears as thousands of Sudanese flee to Chad on foot

News Agency nabakhabar — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 16:00:02 +0000

Tens of thousands of people fleeing violence in Sudan are spilling into Chad, with aid agencies warning that larger flows of refugees are expected to arrive.

Since fierce fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, an estimated 20,000 people have entered Chad and at least 100,000 are set to arrive, the United Nations said on Tuesday, raising concerns about the stability of a fragile region.

The conflict has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and al-Burhan’s deputy in the military’s Sovereignty Council that has been running the country since the October 2021 coup. More than 400 people have died so far.

While the most intense fighting has been taking place in the capital Khartoum, battles have also spread to Sudan’s western region of Darfur, reviving memories of the 16-year-long conflict, in which 300,000 people were killed. Back then, rebels fought against the government of President Omar al-Bashir and the Popular Defence Forces – called “Janjaweed” by the rebels – which later evolved into the RSF.

Lying on Darfur’s western border, Chad has reported the highest number of refugees from the Sudan conflict compared with other neighbouring countries, according to the UN.

“They arrive exhausted and in a state of panic after they left behind all their material and financial assets,” said Idriss Mahmat Ali Abdallah Nassouri, head of Chad’s National Commission for Reception, Reintegration and Returnees (CNARR).

Most of the refugees have come from the towns of Nyala and El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, where the fighting has been more intense, Nassouri said, adding that most are now staying in Chad’s eastern provinces of Ouaddai and Sila.

“The number of arrivals is increasing by the thousands and is worrying,” Nassouri said, noting that resources were straining to assist the 600,000 refugees, spread across 13 camps in the country’s east, who were already living in Chad before the latest crisis in Sudan erupted.

People carry kerkade (hibiscus) juice and cold water to distribute them to people amid evacuations from Khartoum [Twitter@dalliasd/via Reuters]

The CNRR, along with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), began pre-registering incoming civilians to Chad on Monday, identifying urgent needs and assessing whether new camps were needed, or if families could be relocated to pre-existing reception centres.

Meanwhile, UNHCR has said that it has rushed basic items, from sleeping mats to water, to villages close to the borders.

Aid workers operating at the border described receiving mostly women and children who had been walking for more than two days, carrying nothing more than their clothes and a little food.

“The need is huge,” said Alpha Koita, Chad’s chief mission of Premiere Urgence Internationale – a French NGO operating in Chad. “They are mostly women and children coming with nothing, they have left everything behind,” he said as his team deployed a mobile hospital in Adre, a town in Ouaddai.

“We need water, as access to it was difficult – even before the conflict; we need shelters, as people are sleeping under trees, and infrastructures for potable water and latrines to avoid diseases, such as cholera,” Koita added.

Timing is also not favourable, as the rainy season is due to start in June, which will further hamper humanitarian assistance and put locals and refugees into competition for already-scarce resources.

“If the conflict in Sudan continues we will also see an increase in large-scale banditry and inter-ethnic conflict,” Koita added.

Aid agencies were also concerned about their capacity to provide support to the new wave of refugees: “Services are already overstretched to support those who are already there and funding shortfall is critical to our capacity to assist new refugees,” said Eujin Byun, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency. Since the start of the year, only 15 percent of the budget needed to assist displaced people in Chad has been funded.

People gather as they flee clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan [El-Tayeb Siddig/Reuters]

But while Chad has seen the most significant border crossing so far, due to Darfur’s proximity, aid workers have warned that civilians even further away will be affected.

“We need to be prepared in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt … People will be moving; it’s going to take longer, but they are going to start arriving,” said James Curtis, executive director for East Africa at the Danish Refugee Council. “This is only going to get bigger and greater as the crisis intensifies,” Curtis added.

Sudan is home to 800,000 South Sudanese refugees, a quarter of whom live in Khartoum, now pounded by gunfire and air raids.

South Sudan was formerly a part of Sudan but gained independence when a decades-long civil war ended in 2011.

So far, 4,000 South Sudanese have crossed into their home country, mostly through the Renk border crossing point in Upper Nile State, but there has been “a daily increase” in arrivals, read a UN memo. Arrivals have mostly used transport to reach the border, but a large number of South Sudanese are expected to reach the crossing on foot.

The consequences of a significant number of people forced to return to South Sudan, a country plagued by an enduring ethnic conflict that has left almost three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid, were already worrying aid organisations.

“The humanitarian impact of this crisis will be harsh,” read a UN report released on Tuesday.

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Over 27 million children at risk from devastating record-setting floods

News Agency nabakhabar — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 17:00:50 +0000

Overwhelming flooding has affected at least 27.7 million children across 27 countries worldwide, with the number of children affected by flooding in Chad, Gambia, Pakistan and northeast Bangladesh, being the highest in over 30 years.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said in its alert on Tuesday as the COP27 Climate Conference continues, that a large majority of the children affected are among the most vulnerable and that rolling disaster are straining the ability of governments and the international community to respond, given the enormous scale of need.

With millions of children at severe risk of starvation, disease, exploitation and death, the agency is calling for delegates at COP27 to commit to funding to protect children from the devastating effects of a changing climate.

Deadly floodwater

UNICEF says that this year, floods have contributed to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as malnutrition, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, and that the aftermath of floods is often more deadly for children than the extreme weather events that caused the flooding.

In Pakistan, more than one in nine children under five, who were admitted to health facilities in flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan, were found to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

In South Sudan, 95 UNICEF-supported nutrition sites have been affected by floods, hampering the delivery of life-saving and preventative malnutrition services for 92,000 children.

An estimated 840,000 children were displaced by floods in Nigeria in recent months.

Heavy rains and flooding in Yemen triggered floods causing extensive damage to shelters in displacement sites. Up to 73,854 households were affected and 24,000 households have been displaced.

Children make their way home through contaminated floodwater in Jacobabad, 
Sindh province, Pakistan.

‘Drowning in inaction’

“COP27 provides an opportunity to chart a credible roadmap with clear milestones for finance for climate adaptation and solutions for loss and damage,” said Paloma Escudero, UNICEF’s Director of Global Communications and Advocacy.

She added that youngsters “from the most affected places on Earth are drowning in climate inaction. Enough is enough. Lives are on the line – children need action now.”

Adaption is key

As well as pressing governments and big businesses to rapidly reduce emissions, UNICEF is urging leaders to take immediate action to safeguard children from climate devastation by adapting the critical social services they rely upon.

Adaptation measures, like creating water, health and education systems that stand up to flooding and drought, will save lives.

Paloma Escudero said that “without urgent action, many more vulnerable children and young people will lose their lives in the days and weeks to come. And without climate action, hundreds of millions more will almost certainly suffer like those in Pakistan.”

The rivers Chari and Logone overflow in N'Djamena, after the heaviest
 rainy season in Chad in thirty years.

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