People fleeing Sudan's war seek refuge in Chad

With her last ounce of strength, Mariam has made it to safety. She steps across the border into Chad, forced by war from her native Sudan. She has tied what little she has onto a small cart. The young woman has been through hell. Some things she is not able to talk about just yet. She keeps her surname to herself.

In her home country of Sudan, two heavily armed groups are waging a battle for power: the Sudanese army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) . Since April 2023, the fighters have razed villages, raped women, destroyed fields and plundered livestock. Men are being tortured and murdered, and sons are forcibly recruited and abducted. Violence beyond comprehension, and with no end in sight.

An escape into poverty

Adré is the most important border crossing between Sudan and Chad. Three armed soldiers stand on the Sudanese side. They allow the refugees to pass undeterred. Here, in the no-man's-land between the two countries, stands a ruined bridge. It was supposed to be part of an extensive road system — to help trade flourish between the neighbors. But things turned out differently. Now, hundreds of people cross the border every day over the red clay road.

The more violence there is in Sudan, the more people come. Eleven million Sudanese have been displaced. Most of them remain inside the country.

But Chad has already taken in 1.1 million refugees, despite being one of the poorest countries in the world with its own enormous problems to deal with. Climate change, for example, is hitting the country hard. Severe floods alternate with periods of extreme drought. One in three people here lives in extreme poverty, on less than $2.15 (€2.04) a day.

'Any country would be overwhelmed'

First, Mariam is registered at the reception center of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Adré. She then travels a few kilometers on to a temporary camp. Her five children are waiting for her there. Adré, a small town with a population of 40,000, is now home to a temporary refugee camp with 230,000 people. Makeshift plastic tarps stretch as far as the eye can see. Most of the people here are women and children.

Svenja Schulze, Germany's development minister, is visiting the border region. She wants to raise awareness for what the United Nations describes as the world's largest and fastest-growing refugee crisis. She has pledged €57 million ($59 million) in additional aid from Germany. Money that aid organizations use, for example, to build long-term electricity and water infrastructure.

"Any country would be overwhelmed by such a large number of refugees," said Schulze. "No region, no country could manage this alone. And that's why the international community must demonstrate solidarity." Schulze is urging it to do more to help Chad.

Power in the hands of the Déby family

Chad is not an easy partner. When the country's long-time dictator, Idriss Déby Itno, died, power remained firmly in the hands of his family. In April 2024, his son Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was elected president in a controversial vote. He rules Chad with a heavy, authoritarian hand.

Opposition members and journalists lead dangerous lives here. In addition to its most important strategic partner, France, the colonial power that once ruled here, the government is also turning to new allies, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is supporting the government with cheap loans and budgetary aid.

But Chad is said to have left its border open to more than just refugees. "It's an open secret that the United Arab Emirates supply arms to Sudan via Chad," says Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel regional program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is affiliated with Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union party (CDU). "There should be an arms embargo. Russia and the UAE must stop supplying weapons. Without this, peace talks make no sense," says Laessing.

Chad's foreign minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, stands at the door of his office in the capital, N'Djanema. He is holding a short press conference with his German guest. What is his country doing to prevent weapons from entering Sudan via Chad, he is asked. The foreign minister swears: "Personally, I don't know of any country that supplies weapons to Sudan. And if I knew, I would say so, as God is my witness."

"What kind of answer can you expect — the minister is protecting his interests," said Baldal Oyamta a little later in response to the minister's remarks. Oyamta is the national coordinator of the Chadian League for Human Rights. He knows all too well how the government deals with critics. "Dealing with the refugees is one thing. But political interests, military interests, that is something else."

A piece of land to survive on

In eastern Chad, on the border with Sudan, UN aid organizations are trying to give refugees from Sudan a long-term future. They have set up 21 refugee camps throughout the country — each one is to house 50,000 people. It is very difficult to find suitable sites for the camps in the barren, dusty landscape, says Pierre Camera from the UNHCR. This is because there is absolutely no infrastructure.

"So we have to build completely from scratch," says Pierre Camara. Water utilities, electricity, healthcare, schools — and yet only 29% of the urgently needed international aid has been pledged. It's a forgotten crisis.

"It is not enough to provide dignified, decent living conditions for refugees," Camara adds. And at least five more refugee camps urgently need to be built.

UN aid organizations are working closely with the government of Chad. It provides the refugees with plots of land around the camps where they can grow their own food. "We want to help them cultivate land, cultivate vegetables that will create an income," says Alexandre Le Cuziat, deputy head of the World Food Program (WFP). The communities around the refugee camps should also benefit. They should also be given the resources to grow their own food. The goal is to avoid tensions over the few resources available.

Hoping to return home

"Unfortunately, we have to assume that most of the refugees will not be able to return to Sudan in the foreseeable future," said German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, during her visit. Even humanitarian aid is not a permanent solution. "That's why this approach of giving land to refugees and Chadian communities so that it can be used as arable land and pastures is so groundbreaking: whoever has fertile land can provide for themselves."

Mariam now has to wait and see what the future holds for her and her family in Chad. She has not given up hope of one day being able to return to her native Sudan. That, she says, is her greatest wish.

This article was originally written in German.