East Africa: 6.5 Million Sudanese Now Displaced By Conflict - Refugees in Chad Plead for UNHCR Registration

Julian Civiero / WFP
The Adre refugee camp in Chad (file photo).
22 November 2023
Dabanga (Khartoum)

Chad / South Sudan — More than 2,000 Sudanese refugees who reached Camp Milli 1 in eastern Chad independently, are urging the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to register them assuch. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reports that 6.5 million people are now displaced due to the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

Chadian authorities and the UNHCR are facilitating the transfer of refugees from the Adré reception centre and border areas to the camps, whereas newer waves of refugees, especially those with families in Milli camp, are arriving directly at the camp grounds.

Radio Dabanga's correspondent in eastern Chad reported ongoing registration in the Milli camp, slated to conclude on November 25. The registration operations encompass 7,000 Sudanese in Milli 1 and 15,000 in the new Milli 2 camp.

Since the eruption of war on April 15, over 400,000 people have crossed into Chad, predominantly from West Darfur, where severe human rights violations and multiple massacres claimed thousands of lives, mainly targeting the Masalit community.

Toby Harward, Deputy UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, expressed "shock at the devastation in central El Geneina and the empty Masalit residential areas". In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), he decried "looting and deliberate destruction of UN, non-governmental, and public service facilities in Darfur", but remained optimistic about market revival and the return of a small number of displaced people, citing improved humanitarian access.

For its part, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that at least 5 million children are facing "extreme deprivation of their rights and protection risks" due to the ongoing conflict. The organisation reported a 450% spike in cases of children killed and injured in Darfur compared to all of 2022.

Sudanese students seeking refuge at Doro Camp in South Sudan's Maban county are expressing frustration over not being accepted into universities in South Sudan, despite scholarships being offered to them since last September. Complaints also arose from Sudanese refugees in South Sudan's Upper Nile state regarding the reduction of food rations.

The Doro refugee camp in Maban County, South Sudan, houses over 300,000 refugees who fled Sudan's Blue Nile region due to the war waged by the Khartoum regime in the region since 2011.

The International Organisation for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM-DTM) reported yesterday that the number of internally displaced people and cross-border refugees since the outbreak of war has surged to approximately 6.5 million. Within Sudan, nearly 5.1 million people are displaced across about 550 sites, with South Darfur recording the highest rate of displaced. Over 1.4 million people have crossed borders into neighbouring countries.

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