Displaced people in Sudan have endured ‘unimaginable suffering, brutal brutality’
Nineteen months since conflict broke out between rival armies, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the transition of power to civilian rule, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern that more than three million people have now been forced to flee The country seeks safety.
“It has been more than a year and a half of unimaginable suffering, brutal atrocities and widespread human rights violations,” said Dominique Hyde, Director of External Relations UNHCR. “Every day and every minute, thousands of lives are destroyed by war and violence from the world’s attention.”
Speaking in Geneva after visiting displaced communities sheltering in neighboring Chad, Ms. Hyde described Chad as a “shelter, a lifeline” for 700,000 war refugees.
The testimony was unimaginable
“I talked to people who witnessed their families being murdered,” she said. “People are targeted based on their ethnicity. Men and boys were killed and their bodies burned. Women were raped while fleeing. People told me over and over that they remembered the bodies they saw abandoned on the side of the road as they were running away.”
The UNHCR official explained that in the face of great need, the UN agency and its partners have resettled more than 370,000 refugees in Chad “to six newly built settlements and 10 expanded settlements already in place.” ago, all were completed in record time. But tens of thousands of families are still waiting for that opportunity to start over.”
Emergencies are forgotten
The exodus from Sudan has put pressure on surrounding countries to provide assistance to all those in need of shelter and basic services.
“Neighboring countries Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Central African Republic have exceeded their capabilities, not only providing safety to fleeing people but also expanding opportunities for refugees. victims begin to rebuild their lives in exile,” said the UNHCR Official.
“Continuous bloodshed” in Sudan’s Darfurs and across the country has created the world’s worst civil protection crisis in decades, but “The world doesn’t pay attention.” Ms. Hyde emphasized.
In October alone, some 60,000 Sudanese arrived in Chad after fighting escalated in Darfur and as flood waters receded.
The border town of Adre was once home to 40,000 people, but now has about 230,000 Sudanese refugees; many have spent months in harsh conditions while waiting to be resettled on the mainland.
“The exodus from Sudan continues, reaching levels not seen since the start of the crisis,” Ms. Hyde explained. “People arrived in a state of despair, carrying nothing but memories of the unimaginable violence they had witnessed and survived – things that no one should have to endure.”
As UNHCR continues to register new arrivals to Chad, it reports that a full 71% of those who suffered human rights violations in Sudan fled.
Of the 180 people who fled the Darfur city of El Geneina towards Chad, all but 17 were “massacred,” Ms. Hyde recounted the testimony of a young woman who escaped. “Of the 17 survivors, all the women were raped… six of the women who survived the rape committed suicide.”
1.5 billion USD Refugee response plan for refugees in Sudan aimed at assisting 2.7 million people in five neighboring countries is only 29% funded. “Chad and the people there… were more than generous, more than welcoming,” Ms. Hyde said.
“I heard again and again that they feel identified with the Sudanese community. But we need that support. We need support now.”
