When conflict broke out in Sudan in April 2023, it led to millions of people having to flee their homes for safety. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and returnees crossed the border into neighbouring Chad.
Even for people relocated from the border into camps, many remain without shelter. Some have made very basic structures out of left-over branches and cloth or plastic sheets that they manage to find. Families don’t have enough food, and people are suffering in the heat without drinking water or shade. Health concerns like cholera and diarrhoea easily become lethal due to the lack of services. The situation people find themselves in is desperate and without any prospect of change in the near future.
We are working with our partner INTERSOS Tchad to supply emergency shelter materials to people in displacement camps in eastern Chad. This includes tents, tarpaulins and rope. Our team deployed in Chad met with Hawa, who has been living in one of the emergency shelters.
A family divided
Hawa and her family fled their village in Sudan after they were warned of the approaching violence. They crossed the border with her sister’s family.
Hawa told us that no one is left in her village anymore. They left like she did, anyone who remained would have been killed.
Although they reached the border together, the family was still divided. The men in their families were stopped at the border, through fear of them being combatants. They are settling in informal camps until they can be processed.
Life in camp
In the resettlement camp, Hawa and her sister combined their two families.
They now have 13 family members in the camp. They are overcrowded in tents; but the size of their families gave them priority when receiving shelter.
Hawa thanked the ShelterBox team for the tent, and said that it gave the family comfort during the night time.
