More than 55,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed into eastern Chad since the beginning of the year, the United Nations has said, warning that the pace of displacement is accelerating as humanitarian funding continues to fall short of growing needs.
The UN said the latest influx was being driven by renewed fighting and worsening insecurity in several parts of Sudan, where war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has continued since April 2023.
The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people, according to aid workers’ estimates, and triggered what the UN describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
About 11.3 million people remain forcibly displaced by the conflict, including 6.4 million internally displaced people and 3.5 million who have crossed international borders as refugees, according to UN figures.
The UNHCR said nearly one million Sudanese refugees have now crossed into Chad, with continued violence prompting more families to seek safety across the border.
“More than 55,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad so far this year,” Mamadou Dian Balde, the UN’s regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan situation, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Balde, who also heads UNHCR operations in eastern and southern Africa, said the rate of arrivals had increased sharply in recent days.
“Over the past week, the pace of arrivals has accelerated sharply,” he said, adding that more than 400 people were now crossing daily through the Adre and Tine border areas in eastern Chad.
He said the current rate was about 20 times higher than the daily average recorded during the preceding months.
The situation is particularly severe in Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan regions, as well as Blue Nile State, where fighting, including airstrikes and drone attacks, has continued to force civilians from their homes and hinder humanitarian operations.
Balde also warned that humanitarian assistance was failing to keep pace with the rising needs.
The UNHCR said it had received only 18 per cent of the $1.6 billion required this year to respond to refugee needs linked to the Sudan crisis.
In Chad, more than 190,000 refugees remain in difficult conditions in border areas, with many receiving less than half the minimum amount of water required daily, according to Balde.
The transit centre in Tine is already sheltering more than 4,300 people and faces urgent shortages of shelter, water, sanitation and protection services.
UNHCR warned that declining humanitarian support could force refugees to move further in search of safety, legal status and better prospects.
“What people are going to do is to vote with their feet, and this is what we are starting to see in relation to Europe, but also in relation to other routes,” Balde said.
