WFP steps up its response at the Chad-Sudan border for the arrival of “thousands” of refugees from Darfur

July 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The World Food Program (WFP) has stressed that it is carrying out a “rapid increase” of its response on the border between Chad and Sudan in the face of the increase in the number of refugees arriving in the area fleeing the fighting that broke out on the 15th of April between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The agency has indicated in a statement that “thousands” of people are crossing the border every day from the Sudanese region of Darfur (west) to reach the town of Adré, before adding that “many” of them arrive with injuries or with “heartbreaking stories” of the violence they have escaped.

“People are running across the border, injured, scared and with only their children in their hands and their clothes on their backs. They need security and humanitarian aid,” said WFP Chad director Pierre Honnorat, who has stressed that “the WFP has mobilized everything it has to the border to support the new arrivals.”

In this sense, he has detailed that some 20,000 people have arrived in Adré during the last week, which brings to 230,000 the number of refugees who have crossed the border since the outbreak of hostilities, a figure to which 38,000 Chadians are added. found as refugees in Sudan who have returned to the country.

The WFP has explained that it has provided food and nutritional assistance to nearly 152,000 people and the host communities, at the same time that it has stressed that it works with local actors in the health spectrum and the local government to improve the health infrastructure in the border area. .

So far, the agency has built six temporary units in the area, including two that are being used as a field hospital and for medical logistics, while the other four operate as transit centers for refugees arriving in Chad.

The situation has led the WFP to send food aid to the border, although the agency has stressed that “resources are running out rapidly” and has warned of the “high rates of malnutrition among children arriving from Darfur.”

Estimates suggest that more than ten percent of children are malnourished, so the admission of these minors to Adré health centers is increasing “rapidly”, which puts “significant” pressure on “limited facilities”.

Added to this is the onset of the rainy season, which is making road access to the area difficult, while while WFP is able to deliver food aid in East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and Central Darfur, there is still cannot operate safely in Western Darfur, one of the areas most affected by intercommunal clashes stemming from the conflict between the Army and the RSF.

The current hostilities between the Army and the paramilitaries broke out in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF into the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition open after the overthrow in 2019 of Omar Hasan al Bashir, damaged by the coup in October 2021, in which the prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok, was overthrown.

The conflict has so far left more than 1,100 dead, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, but the real figures could be much higher considering the inter-communal violence unleashed in the Kordofan and Darfur regions.

In addition, more than 2.9 million people have been displaced, including nearly 700,000 who have fled to neighboring countries, according to data released last week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), amid reports of daily atrocities and sexual abuse of on a large scale against the women and girls of the country.