More than 55,000 people have fled the conflict in Sudan to neighboring Chad since the beginning of this year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday.
The agency said the pace of arrivals accelerated significantly last week, with more than 400 people crossing the border each day at Adré and Tina in eastern Chad.
“Those numbers represent a 20-fold increase compared with previous months,” Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s Regional Coordinator for the Sudan Situation, told journalists in Geneva from his location in Nairobi.
In Tina, a transit reception center is hosting more than 4,300 refugees and is in need of many basic services. UNHCR also reported accounts from women and girls who were subjected to serious acts of violence during their journey to Chad.
The war that erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, according to humanitarian workers.
UNHCR said on Friday that “Sudan remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with around 11.3 million people forced to flee their homes since the conflict began, including 6.4 million internally displaced people.”
The agency added that the situation is “particularly critical in the Darfur states” in western Sudan.
