Darfur attacks fuel refugee crisis in eastern Chad, UN says

June 16, 2025 (N’DJAMENA) – Recent attacks in Sudan’s North Darfur have triggered a new flood of refugees into eastern Chad, where humanitarian agencies are struggling to relocate people from the volatile border region ahead of the rainy season, the United Nations said.

Attacks in the Zamzam IDP camp and El Fasher on April 11 drove the latest exodus. An average of 740 people have crossed into Chad daily since early June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

The influx has pushed the number of Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad to over 1.2 million, a threefold increase since April 2023.

The new arrivals have entered a region where humanitarian needs were already severe. More than half the population in eastern Chad now requires urgent assistance, according to aid groups.

“The influx of Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees continues at an impressive pace,” OCHA said in a statement.

Aid operations are under pressure from both the fragile security situation and the imminent rainy season, which threatens to block access to key areas due to flooding in local wadis, or riverbeds. Efforts are focused on relocating refugees away from the border and prepositioning aid in zones at risk of being cut off.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) plans to relocate 130,000 new refugees. In Ouaddaï province, 63,000 people will be relocated from an overcrowded site in Adré, which currently accommodates 173,000 people, to new or expanded camps. An additional 66,000 refugees will be moved from sites in Wadi-Fira province.

The Chadian government has called for the relocation process to be accelerated. On May 22, the country’s Prime Minister urged a faster move of refugees away from border areas. OCHA is supporting the government’s development of a national flood contingency plan.

The eastern provinces of Chad, home to 4.5 million people, were already hosting a population where nearly 1 million people were in dire need of humanitarian aid before the latest crisis began.