In the nearly two years since war broke out in Sudan, almost one million people have fled into neighbouring Chad, including more than 720,000 Sudanese refugees and more than 220,000 Chadians who returned home because of the conflict. Nine out of ten people forced into displacement are women and children and many have endured terrible acts of violence, including torture, rape and sexual slavery. Twenty-three international humanitarian organisations operating in eastern Chad warn that the majority of those refugees and returnees do not have access to the protection and education assistance they direly need.
War in Sudan: Nearly one million people forcibly displaced to Chad
“When we finally arrived in Chad, I was very happy and relieved. For a second, I forgot the fear,” says Nima, a refugee who walked for five days before reaching the border with her three daughters and husband, who had been injured by gunshot in an attack in Al-Fashir in Darfur.
Nima says fear quickly resurfaced: “My six-year-old has nightmares every night. She yells ‘Mommy, they are coming to kill us. We have to run.’ I try to calm them down, but it’s not easy to make them feel safe when I do not feel safe. I too wake up in the middle of the night, my heart beating so fast because I am afraid all the time. I need peace of mind. I do not feel at home here in this camp as long as I am scared.”
More than two-thirds of those arriving in Chad have endured some form of violence during their ordeal, and a third were victims of physical assault, according to protection monitoring data collected in October 2024. That same month, a UN fact-finding mission documented large-scale sexual violence committed by armed actors in Sudan amongst other human rights violations.
“Most refugees cross the border with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and an abundance of harrowing stories,” says Alix Camus, President of the INGO Forum and country director of Acted, which supports the management of the transit site in Adré, near the border.
“Many have to cope with a great deal of trauma which can, and should, be addressed with a bigger focus on child protection, education, mental health as well as treatment and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. Yet, faced with an emergency crisis of this magnitude on the one hand, and scraps of funding on the other, that type of assistance is placed on the backburner. It should be considered vital seeing what people have gone through,” adds Camus.
Chad hosted around a third of newly displaced Sudanese refugees in 2024, bringing the world’s largest displacement crisis to one of the world’s poorest countries. Since April 2023, humanitarian organisations in Chad, including many local and national responders, have rushed to scale up the response with scant resources and deliver lifesaving aid such as food, water and shelter for Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees.
Only 30 per cent of the Refugee Response Plan in Chad was funded in 2024, and even food assistance fell drastically short of covering their daily needs. Meanwhile, the protection and education sectors featured the largest gaps of the emergency response.
In some provinces in eastern Chad, more than 8 out of 10 children – refugees, returnees and children from host communities combined - did not attend school in 2024. An assessment carried out by the UNHCR in Wadi Fira in November 2024, with the support of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), revealed a dramatic lack of school infrastructure for both host and displaced populations and a severe shortage of teachers.
“We saw great demand from parents and a real motivation on the part of the children to join the temporary schools built in the displacement camps. Going back to school is ‘make-or-break’ for the children’s present and their future. Despite forced displacement, the horrors experienced and the lingering trauma, education is the most powerful way to reintroduce a reassuring routine in their lives and rebuild hope,” says Mastam Degolmal, NRC’s Education Coordinator in Adre.
Signatory organisations urge for robust regional funding mechanisms to be put in place in order not to leave Sudan’s neighbouring countries to scramble for crumbs as they respond to the fallout of the conflict.
“The world’s largest humanitarian crisis doesn’t stop at Sudan’s borders,” says Amadou Bocoum, Country Director of CARE in Chad. “Despite acute challenges of its own, Chad has welcomed refugees and guaranteed their right to asylum, which is remarkable. The international community must match such a level of compassion and solidarity by urgently ramping up its efforts to properly and adequately assist those who have survived.”
Signatory organisations
Acted
Action contre la Faim (ACF)
CARE
Concern Worldwide (CWW)
Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
Enfants du Monde
Humanité & Inclusion (HI)
INSO
International Medical Corps (IMC)
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
INTERSOS
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
OXFAM
Plan International
Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)
Qatar Charity
Relief International
Secours Islamique France (SIF)
Solidarités International
Tearfund
Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH)
Notes to the editor:
- As of January 6, 2025, 723,951 Sudanese refugees and 222,743 Chadian returnees have been displaced to Chad since the start of the Sudan crisis in April 2023 (UNHCR). 88% of the refugees and 93% of the returnees (as of August 2024) are women and children. 3,565 are unaccompanied or separated children and 67% of the returnees are children.
- Over 3 out of 4 Sudanese refugees who had just arrived in Chad reported having experienced human rights violations including physical assault (36%) and property extortion (32%) (P21 protection monitoring data, October 2024).
- 96% of households have children of school age. More than half of Sudanese refugee children had already dropped out of school prior to their displacement (P21 protection monitoring data, October 2024).
- 3 out of 4 households depended on food assistance, and less than 8% said that the quantity of food received was enough to cover their needs (Acted, November 2024).
- 83% of the children do not have access to school and child labour was widely reported (Acted, November 2024).
- The 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Chad identifies 7.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (up from 6 million in the 2024 HRP) and calls for a funding of 1.5 billion USD (up from 1.1 billion last year) (Humanitarian Action).
- Only 55% of the funded needed in 2024 was effectively allocated (OCHA’s FTS) while Sudan’s Regional Refugee Response plan was only 30% funded.
- The largest sectorial gaps can be found in general protection programming (7% achievements compared to targets), child protection (9% achievements), GBV (14%) and education (18%) (Chad’s coordination platform for the emergency response).
- 135,053 children did not receive school kits, 2,401 teachers were not recruited and 58,544 patients did not have access to mental health support (Chad’s coordination platform for the emergency response).
- More than 8 out of 10 children – refugees, returnees and children from host communities combined - were not in school in 2024 (2024 HRP).
- In the Dar Tama, department of Wadi Fira region, there are just 10 permanent teachers for 71 schools in operation according to the report from the participatory multi-sectoral evaluation conducted by UNHCR and NRC in Wadi-Fira in November 2024.
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
- NRC global media hotline: media@nrc.no, +47 905 62 329
- CARE Director Media & Communications: michael.vulpillieres@care.org, +1 929 944 1582
“When we finally arrived in Chad, I was very happy and relieved. For a second, I forgot the fear,” says Nima, a refugee who walked for five days before reaching the border with her three daughters and husband, who had been injured by gunshot in an attack in Al-Fashir in Darfur.
Nima says fear quickly resurfaced: “My six-year-old has nightmares every night. She yells ‘Mommy, they are coming to kill us. We have to run.’ I try to calm them down, but it’s not easy to make them feel safe when I do not feel safe. I too wake up in the middle of the night, my heart beating so fast because I am afraid all the time. I need peace of mind. I do not feel at home here in this camp as long as I am scared.”
More than two-thirds of those arriving in Chad have endured some form of violence during their ordeal, and a third were victims of physical assault, according to protection monitoring data collected in October 2024. That same month, a UN fact-finding mission documented large-scale sexual violence committed by armed actors in Sudan amongst other human rights violations.
“Most refugees cross the border with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and an abundance of harrowing stories,” says Alix Camus, President of the INGO Forum and country director of Acted, which supports the management of the transit site in Adré, near the border.
“Many have to cope with a great deal of trauma which can, and should, be addressed with a bigger focus on child protection, education, mental health as well as treatment and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. Yet, faced with an emergency crisis of this magnitude on the one hand, and scraps of funding on the other, that type of assistance is placed on the backburner. It should be considered vital seeing what people have gone through,” adds Camus.
Chad hosted around a third of newly displaced Sudanese refugees in 2024, bringing the world’s largest displacement crisis to one of the world’s poorest countries. Since April 2023, humanitarian organisations in Chad, including many local and national responders, have rushed to scale up the response with scant resources and deliver lifesaving aid such as food, water and shelter for Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees.
Only 30 per cent of the Refugee Response Plan in Chad was funded in 2024, and even food assistance fell drastically short of covering their daily needs. Meanwhile, the protection and education sectors featured the largest gaps of the emergency response.
In some provinces in eastern Chad, more than 8 out of 10 children – refugees, returnees and children from host communities combined - did not attend school in 2024. An assessment carried out by the UNHCR in Wadi Fira in November 2024, with the support of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), revealed a dramatic lack of school infrastructure for both host and displaced populations and a severe shortage of teachers.
“We saw great demand from parents and a real motivation on the part of the children to join the temporary schools built in the displacement camps. Going back to school is ‘make-or-break’ for the children’s present and their future. Despite forced displacement, the horrors experienced and the lingering trauma, education is the most powerful way to reintroduce a reassuring routine in their lives and rebuild hope,” says Mastam Degolmal, NRC’s Education Coordinator in Adre.
Signatory organisations urge for robust regional funding mechanisms to be put in place in order not to leave Sudan’s neighbouring countries to scramble for crumbs as they respond to the fallout of the conflict.
“The world’s largest humanitarian crisis doesn’t stop at Sudan’s borders,” says Amadou Bocoum, Country Director of CARE in Chad. “Despite acute challenges of its own, Chad has welcomed refugees and guaranteed their right to asylum, which is remarkable. The international community must match such a level of compassion and solidarity by urgently ramping up its efforts to properly and adequately assist those who have survived.”
Signatory organisations
Acted
Action contre la Faim (ACF)
CARE
Concern Worldwide (CWW)
Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
Enfants du Monde
Humanité & Inclusion (HI)
INSO
International Medical Corps (IMC)
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
INTERSOS
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
OXFAM
Plan International
Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)
Qatar Charity
Relief International
Secours Islamique France (SIF)
Solidarités International
Tearfund
Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH)
Notes to the editor:
- As of January 6, 2025, 723,951 Sudanese refugees and 222,743 Chadian returnees have been displaced to Chad since the start of the Sudan crisis in April 2023 (UNHCR). 88% of the refugees and 93% of the returnees (as of August 2024) are women and children. 3,565 are unaccompanied or separated children and 67% of the returnees are children.
- Over 3 out of 4 Sudanese refugees who had just arrived in Chad reported having experienced human rights violations including physical assault (36%) and property extortion (32%) (P21 protection monitoring data, October 2024).
- 96% of households have children of school age. More than half of Sudanese refugee children had already dropped out of school prior to their displacement (P21 protection monitoring data, October 2024).
- 3 out of 4 households depended on food assistance, and less than 8% said that the quantity of food received was enough to cover their needs (Acted, November 2024).
- 83% of the children do not have access to school and child labour was widely reported (Acted, November 2024).
- The 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Chad identifies 7.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (up from 6 million in the 2024 HRP) and calls for a funding of 1.5 billion USD (up from 1.1 billion last year) (Humanitarian Action).
- Only 55% of the funded needed in 2024 was effectively allocated (OCHA’s FTS) while Sudan’s Regional Refugee Response plan was only 30% funded.
- The largest sectorial gaps can be found in general protection programming (7% achievements compared to targets), child protection (9% achievements), GBV (14%) and education (18%) (Chad’s coordination platform for the emergency response).
- 135,053 children did not receive school kits, 2,401 teachers were not recruited and 58,544 patients did not have access to mental health support (Chad’s coordination platform for the emergency response).
- More than 8 out of 10 children – refugees, returnees and children from host communities combined - were not in school in 2024 (2024 HRP).
- In the Dar Tama, department of Wadi Fira region, there are just 10 permanent teachers for 71 schools in operation according to the report from the participatory multi-sectoral evaluation conducted by UNHCR and NRC in Wadi-Fira in November 2024.
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
- NRC global media hotline: media@nrc.no, +47 905 62 329
- CARE Director Media & Communications: michael.vulpillieres@care.org, +1 929 944 1582