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Chad + 1 more

Protection Brief Chad, July 2023

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Operational Context & Analysis

The ongoing fighting in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) triggered displacement of almost two and half million people, both within Sudan and to neighboring countries. As of 30 June, UNHCR and the Government of Chad have identified almost 180,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad seeking safety, who have fled the conflict in Sudan. 92 percent of the refugees population consist of women and children, hosted in spontaneous sites and in managed camps in three provinces of Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira in eastern Chad. The overwhelming majority of the arrivals are from the Darfur region, which has been deeply impacted by violence for decades and where the rivalry between the RSF and the SAF has unleashed a parallel inter-communal conflict between Arab and Masalit tribes. The killing of the West Darfur state governor in mid-June, immediately after he had publicly denounced the ethnic violence in the State, marked a new escalation in the conflict. Focus group discussions with refugees in Chad attested to human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, rapes, deliberate destruction of property. Refugees arriving in Chad report that entire towns in West Darfur no longer exist due to the level of destruction and the mass exodus of the population.

The serious challenges in gaining humanitarian access to Darfur from Sudan, particularly to West Darfur, has prompted the humanitarian community to seek alternative ways to deliver assistance to people in need, through cross-border operations from Chad. At the same time, options of safe passage of civilians into Chad are being pursued, thanks to a favorable border policy maintained by the Chadian authorities. In mid-June, UNHCR coordinated with Arab leaders controlling the El Geneina-Adre route to facilitate the transportation into Chad of older persons, children and persons with specific needs fleeing West Darfur. These movements, together with other sporadic arrivals of civilians taking advantage of an intermittent lull in fighting, have determined a steady increase in the influx of refugees during the month of June, particularly in the northern part of the Ouaddaï region. As a result, the estimated planning figure for the humanitarian response, initially set at 100,000 individuals is anticipated to swiftly increase to 250,000 individuals by the end of 2023. The establishment of additional camps has emerged as a compelling need. The refugee population numbers add to the more than 407,000 Sudanese refugees who have been hosted since 2023 in 14 camps in Eastern Chad before the latest crisis in Sudan broke out.

Under the leadership and the coordination of the Government of Chad and of UNHCR, humanitarian actors have provided an emergency response since the first weeks of the conflict to the forcibly displaced persons in multiple spontaneous sites and camps emerging along the border areas, where refugees were arriving in desperate conditions and were received by the local communities. Since the inception of the humanitarian response, main interventions evolved around three main objectives:

i) maintain a rapid response with basic reception capacity and protection services in the arrival areas along the border; ii) ensure a safe and dignified process of relocation of refugees further away from the border to guarantee their safety and security; iii) develop and/or strengthen protection services and assistance delivery, as well as improving shelter and infrastructures in existing and newly created sites in Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira.

Considering the volatile situation at the border and with the objective of strengthening the delivery of protection and assistance, UNHCR and its partners have been supporting since May the safe relocation of refugees from the insecure border areas to existing managed camps in Ouaddaï (Gaga and Farchana), Sila (Djabal and Goz Amir) and Wadi Fira (Milé, Kounoungou and Iridimi). Due to the continuous arrivals, and the limited space in the pre-existing camps, two additional camps have been identified and are being set up in Ouaddaï (Arkoum) and in Sila (Zabout) to accommodate the new refugees.

The start of the rainy season and the deteriorating conditions of the roads affect the pace of the relocation activities. It is therefore expected that a significant number of refugees may not be relocated on time and be compelled to remain in border areas. Consequently, in parallel to the ongoing relocation exercise, humanitarian agencies have pre-positioned assistance items, and maintain some basic health services, WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] facilities as well as basic protection services in border locations, particularly in three ‘hub sites’ for new arrivals in Adré and Borota in the Ouaddaï province and in Ademour in the Sila province. This will guarantee life-saving support to those refugees who may not be immediately relocated and for new arrivals during the rainy season.

Despite the official border closure, the Government of Chad continues to allow Sudanese refugees and third country nationals fleeing Sudan to seek refuge and safety in Chad. The vast majority (86%) of households that UNHCR teams consulted upon arrival, indicated that they did not encounter any difficulty in accessing the country, while episodes of violence, assault, extortion, were experienced in Sudan on the way to the border. In addition, households generally indicated that they feel welcome by the Chadian host community thanks to ethnic and cultural affinity.

In May, the Government signed the Application Decree of the Law on Asylum in Chad, which was adopted in December 2020, in line with the commitments made by the country during the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019. This law and its application decree are expected to improve the protection regime provided to the nearly 600,000 protracted and newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers currently hosted in the country, representing more than 3% of the Chadian population. The application of the law is expected to strengthen the national framework for the protection of refugee and asylum seekers, favoring the respect for their civil and socio-economic rights, including freedom of movement, access to justice, the right to work, access to healthcare, education, land, amongst others.

Moreover, the sustained new arrivals and the halting of the main commercial routes between Sudan and Chad due to the conflict are having a catastrophic impact on the socio-economic situation of the country and particularly on its eastern regions. Just before the eruption of the conflict in Sudan, the World Food Program (WFP) had projected that nearly 1.9 million people in Chad would be in severe food insecurity from June to August 2023, while more than 1.3 million children would suffer from acute malnutrition. The arrival of almost 180,000 individuals as of end June, with the resulting pressure on already scarce resources, has further aggravated the humanitarian situation of the population at large. In turn, the severe socio-economic conjuncture negatively impacts the overall protection environment, with concerns for the possible rise in child labour, under-aged marriage, recruitment into armed groups and other harmful coping strategies.