Initial report of the visit to the refugee camps in eastern Chad
Dr. Abdelillah Douda led a team of American activists to the refugee camps from Darfur, Sudan in eastern Chad during the period of November 13-30, 2023. They inspected the conditions of refugees in the cities of N'Djamena, Abeche, and Adre, in addition to the refugee camps surrounding Adre, such as Atshana, Mornei, and the King's Camp. The team also visited Maji and Abutangui camps, which are about 50 and 30 kilometers from Adre.
During this visit, the team listened to a variety of refugee stories in individual and group meetings and witnessed directly the different life conditions that refugees live today by visiting homes of people who live in cities and camps. They listened to the stories of people who saw their loved ones brutally assassinated in front of their eyes. They listened to people who watched their properties looted and their houses vandalized and burned before their eyes. They listened to females who described terrible details of their repeated rape under threats of guns. They listened to people who survived attempts to be buried alive. They saw, watched and lived the catastrophic lives of the refugees in the camps. After verification and research, the visiting team found out a host of issues. Issues that the team determined as vital to report and let the entire world know about.
Security and safety issues
Humanitarian issues, including Shelter, Food and Water, Medical and health care and Education
Legal issues and public order in the host country
Security and safety issues: Most Sudanese refugees fled their homes in West Darfur to Eastern Chad as a result of lack of security and widespread chaos of killing, raping and looting carried out by the Janjaweed forces and other militias against them. Most of the refugees whom the visiting team met stated that they still feel panic, lack of security and safety in the host country despite efforts made by the government of Chad to protect them. Major reason behind this feeling is the proximity of their camps to Sudan, where the Janjaweed who expelled them from their homes are present and are still stalking them. Many of the victims the team spoke to stated that they had received direct threats of killing from the Janjweed inside Chad. Others mentioned that they met a number of the Janjaweed who attacked them in El Geneina in markets of Adre and Abeche- Chad. They reported these incidents to the Chadian authorities. Measures were taken against some of them, and others disappeared before Chadian government arrested them.
The feeling of insecurity and lack of safety among the refugees in Chad is a common phenomenon among many of them. It is not limited to those who live in camps only, but it also touches those who live in major cities such as N'Djamena, Abeche and Adre. Adam Abkar, a former high rank employee in the government of Sudan, who is now a refugee in one of the Chadian cities, stated that he met members of the men who assaulted him and burned his house in El Geneina. He met them in the market of Abeche - Chad and informed the Chadian authorities about it, but the Janjaweed men disappeared before the Chadian authorities could arrest them. Imam Mukhtar Hasaballah, an imam of a famous mosque in El Geneina, stated that he cannot sleep in one place every day in Adre. He always has a special guard with him when he moves during the day at night. The issue of security and lack of safety in the camps is one of the most urgent issues faced by the refugees; especially, since camps such as Abutangui and Maji are only 20 kilometers away from the Sudanese border where the Janjaweed are present. In these locations Janjaweed forces can easily infiltrate and attack the residents of the camps despite the presence of the joint forces (Sudanese - Chadian) that maintain security there.
A number of refugees mentioned in a meeting with the team in Maji camp that they do not feel safe and secure at all in the camp. Moreover, their search for security and self-safety, for which they fled their homes in Sudan, did not materialize in these places. They live in constant fear and panic in these camps, and therefore, they appeal to the international community to stand by their side and protect them by providing them with security to safe their lives.
Humanitarian issues: The war in West Darfur State and the practices of the Janjaweedduring this war were systematic and carefully planned to exterminate the black population of the region, impoverish and displace those who survived. Therefore, one of the urgent issues facing all refugees who managed to flee West Darfur with their lives to Chad, which the team stood on, are the issues of shelter, food, water, medical and health care. Despite the classification of refugees between those who managed to rent houses and live in cities, such as Adre, Abeche and N'Djamena, and those who have nothing to support their families and have been forced to live in camps. Though the latter groups rely entirely on assistances, they are all refugees with extremely complex humanitarian problems. Ahmed, a refugee from El Geneina who lives now in N’Djamena, commented, a refugee is a refugee whether he lives in a camp or in a house inside the city.
A large number of those who were interviewed by the team in N'Djamena, Abeche and Adre stated that they were living in dire humanitarian conditions. The conditions under which they live do not meet the minimum necessities of life. Many of those the team met in Abéché and N'Djamena said they could not pay their monthly rents and could not provide their families with food and drink, let alone health care and education. As for those who live in the camps, the situation is worse, as they all live in conditions that are least described as tragic. In terms of shelter, most of them live in the open or in cabins like animal dents, especially those who are living in camps around the city of Adre, such as the king's camp, Atshana and Mornei camp. These camps are considered temporary transitional camps from which refugees from Sudan are first received and transferred to permanent camps such as Meji and Abutangui. The population of Meji Camp is about 50,000 and Abutangui is about 30,000, mostly women and children. Most of the men were killed as elaborated by Hassan, one of the chief in the camp.
Residents of these camps suffer from serious problems. The camps were set up in places that lack any natural elements to support human life. There is no vegetation cover and therefore no shady trees, no clean water sources and no fuel. To make the situation worse, the shelters in the camps were built from blue plastic rooms that are difficult to live in during the day when the sun shines, especially for children and the elderly.
As for living in the camps, all refugees suffer from real famine as a result of the impoverishment that struck the refugees during the war, the flight of some of them with only their clothes from West Darfur to Chad and the absence of major international organizations that could play an important role in alleviating their suffering. Mr. Faisal Haroun, head of the Refugee Committee in Abéché, told us that most of the refugees in Abéché do not have enough food for their day and suffer real starvation because of lack of food and money. As for the refugees in the camps, their condition is much worse than that, despite the simple distribution of some foodstuffs by UNHCR Organization, such as corn, beans, and oil, which do not satisfy the minimum of the refugees’ needs.
In a meeting with some refugees in the Maji camp, a large number of them confirmed that some of the refugees were forced to leave the camp as a result of the state of famine they are experiencing in the camp. The lack of water and the resulting thirst is considered the biggest problem in Meji and Abutangui. There are no water sources close to the camps and the absence of large water tanks that could help refugees preserve water that is distributed in the camps from time to time.In this regard, the visiting team distributed water storage jerrycans to some refugees. The lack of fuel is another problem for refugees in these camps. Refugees travel long distances to obtain fuelwood, and sometimes women are exposed to horrific sexual assaults while traveling to obtain fuelwood. During the meeting with the committee of sheikhs in the Maji camp, a number of women expressed with sadness and frustration the troubles and difficulties they face while searching for water and fuel.
Education: There is a thorny problem that people rarely pay attention to in such circumstances, which is the problem of education. Most of the refugees who took refuge from West Darfur to Chad are children who are still of school age. Since most of the education system in Chad is French, it is difficult for those students who studied in Arabic in Sudan to be absorbed in it. Despite the presence of a large number of Sudanese teachers among the refugees, the possibilities of opening Arabic schools based Sudanese curriculum require great capabilities that are not yet available to them. Mr. Qamar, the education official in the Maji camp, which has a population of more than 50,000 people, told me that there are only two classes in the camp. As for the Abutangui camp and Adre camps, no one talked about education at all. Lack of education resulted in my social and economic problem. Minors are exposed to exploitation, particularly sexual exploitations for teenagers. Families use children to go out and work to provide food because men were killed or disappeared.
Health & Medical care: As for health care, the conditions of refugees from western Sudan in Chad are very bad. Refugees who live in cities such as N'Djamena, Abeche and Adre do not receive any health care from any party. When necessary, some of them often turn to local clinics, which are very expensive. Children and the elderly, especially those who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, suffer from extreme difficulties in obtaining appropriate medical care. A significant number of them have died as a result of the lack of health care. As for the camps, there is no such thing as therapeutic health or environmental health. All the camps around the city of Adre, such as the King's Camp, Atshana Camp, Mirnei Camp, and the new shelter centers, which have a population of more than 200,000 people, have only two or three clinics, including the Save El Geneina clinic which is supported by ICO and Silber Foundation (via Operation Broken Silence), and a clinic under the auspices of Doctors Without Borders (MSF). All these clinics provide very modest medical services. These clinics suffer from a shortage of medicine, running budgets, and medical equipment. In terms of environmental health, there are no sources of clean drinking water, there are no bathrooms, and most people relieve themselves in the open, which constitutes a real environmental disaster in the spread of diseases and epidemics. As for the Maji and Abutangui camp, they do not have any kind of therapeutic health care or environmental health. The team checked the conditions of the bathrooms that were set up with the tents, all of which collapsed and some of them filled up in a short period. Consequently, everyone began relieving themselves in the open.
Legal issues and public order: Many refugees reported that they were subjected to pressure and ill-treatment from some local authorities. Ms. Ahlam from Meji camp mentioned that the local employees who work in the camps treat them with extreme inferiority and do not appreciate the psychological conditions that Sudanese refugees go through in the camps. The public order authorities in the host country sometimes impose restrictions on their movements, and sometimes impose large fines on them that many refugees are unable to pay.
In general, the situation of the refugees from West Darfur in eastern Chad is disastrous in all aspects: security, humanitarian and legal, which requires the combined efforts of the local, regional and international community to intervene and alleviate the suffering of these refugees. Frankly, I and the team accompanying me witnessed the worst types of humanitarian violations in the twenty-first century. We listened to stories of murder, robbery, rape, plunder and abuse from those who were directly exposed to. We lived with them the psychological traumas they suffer from day and night. More than half a million victims are suffering and living in the most horrific humanitarian conditions. The camp elders told us about cases of trauma experienced by the victims, such as screaming, howling, hitting, and sometimes running away in panic in the middle of the night. The regional and international community's ignorance of what is happening to the West Darfur refugee in eastern Chad has left the victims in despair and sadness. Cases of suicide and insanity among young people are constantly increasing. More than half a million victims are on the verge of death.
Hence, in my name and in the name of the visiting team, we all bear witness that we saw, watched, spoke and listened to what the refugees from West Darfur were subjected to during the war in their state at the hands of the Janjaweed. Moreover, we watched and lived the condition in which they are living today in camps go back help quite. We testify that they are living in the worst humanitarian conditions in the refugee camps in eastern Chad. Therefore, in our names and in the names of all the victims, we appeal to the international community, especially The United Nations, with all its branches, the Government of the United States, the European Union, the African Union, and all the neighboring countries of Sudan to move immediately to rescue these victims and pull them out from this appalling situation.
Dr. Abdelillah Douda
Sudan Sunrise Director Thomas Prichard
Bishop Abraham Nihal
Dr. Jumaa Shaibu
