Displaced again: Sudanese refugees forced out of Adré Refugee Camp, Chad

4 July 2024

Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April last year, a steady stream of Sudanese from Darfur have fled across the border into Chad. Over 579,000 Sudanese refugees have escaped to the neighbouring country, pushing Chad’s refugee population over the 1 million mark, the highest the country has hosted in the past 20 years.

Some of the worst violence during this current conflict has taken place in West Darfur State; the UN estimates 15,000 deaths in the state’s capital, El Geneina, alone. It is no wonder, then, that a steady stream of Sudanese have left West Darfur and crossed the border into Adré Refugee Camp, a camp that hosts over 150,000 displaced Sudanese. In Adré, refugees outnumber locals by more than two to one, as the local population is only 68,000 (OCHA).

The camp was not designed for such an influx and now local farmers in Chad are demanding the refugees be relocated so that they can plant during the upcoming rainy season, local residents told Ayin. Now people violently displaced are displaced again—many forced to relocate to another camp roughly 170 kilometres away with few services available for the Sudanese refugees.

“If we stay and the rain comes, we will get sick and die,” one refugee in Adré told Ayin “They do not care. They tore all the tarpaulins [used for shelters] with knives.”