Many Sudanese flee to Chad after attack on refugee Camp

Thousands of Sudanese refugees are crossing into eastern Chad. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says over 18,500 people arrived in just two weeks.

This comes after bombs hit the Zamzam camp in Darfur and the city of al-Fasher. Now, many people are running for safety. They include children, old people, and pregnant women. Most of them are very hungry and weak.

“We didn’t expect so many people,” said Jean-Paul Habamungu, head of the UNHCR office in Chad. “It’s very bad here at the border. There are many children without their parents. We just met a 14-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy crying and looking for their families.”

Habamungu said more pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are also arriving, and many are sick from hunger.

He said people are dying on the road from hunger as they try to move from Zamzam to Tawila and Tiné.

The UNHCR says 76% of the new arrivals have suffered from rape, robbery, and violence.

Chad is already hosting 1.3 million refugees. Of these, nearly 800,000 came from Sudan after the war began two years ago. Now, it is very hard for the country to provide food, water, and shelter for everyone.

Last month, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the Zamzam camp. They stayed for three days and killed at least 400 people. Survivors say RSF soldiers shot people in the streets, beat and raped women, and destroyed homes.

The attack on April 11 was the worst in the camp’s 20-year history. The camp once had 500,000 people, but now it is almost empty. The RSF also destroyed the only working health centre and killed nine aid workers. Large parts of the camp were burned.

Source- Africanews