June 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
More than 100,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad are at risk of losing access to humanitarian and medical assistance due to the onset of the rainy season, according to the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The Sila border area, where most of the refugees are located, could see its roads flooded and dry riverbeds, making the region “inaccessible” and both refugees and host communities “completely isolated and excluded.
“Many refugees want to get away from the border area, but there is not enough space to relocate them. At the same time, there are others who want to stay where they are, in addition to those who continue to arrive from Sudan,” said the general coordinator of MSF in Chad, Audrey van der Schoot.
In addition, the organization has denounced that the current conditions are already inadequate, especially with regard to access to drinking water and hygiene, and that aid “is lagging behind”, which has led many to ” turn to other refugee families or the host community to share their meager resources with them.
Chad, a country with few resources, now faces even higher levels of malnutrition due to the difficulty of “earning a living” in the rainy season, the “soaring prices” of food and other basic products and “recurring outbreaks “of diseases.
“We are facing a crisis on top of another crisis. Every time the conflict in Sudan escalates, more people arrive, and it is expected that more will cross into Chad if the fighting does not stop. In a context already neglected and underfunded like the Chadian , continued arrivals from Sudan place a strain on the country’s already limited and stretched resources and could exacerbate the existing humanitarian needs of both Sudanese refugees and the host community,” Van der Schoot said.
The MSF coordinator has also “urgently” requested more humanitarian aid and funding for the emergency project deployed in the area that includes mobile clinics whose services are medical care and preventive activities such as “detection and treatment of acute child malnutrition , sexual and reproductive health care and referrals to the MSF-supported Deguessa health center or Koukou hospital for secondary care.
MSF has described the “disturbing accounts” of refugees from southern West Darfur (Sudan), who were exposed to “extreme levels” of violence — both sexual and gender-based — including torture, kidnapping, forced recruitment, looting, blackmail and destruction of property.
“People may be forced to make unimaginable decisions: stay without any help or return to Sudan, where they would be exposed to more violence and physical and psychological harm. Current humanitarian action must prioritize the situation and the needs of the people who will be left behind. stranded at the border,” he adds,” said Van der Schoot.
