Médecins Sans Frontières - First patient admitted as the influx of refugees from Sudan increased after intensified fighting in El Geneina

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSB178572

Date taken / Date Recorded 04/11/2023 12:00 AM

Country Chad

Detailed location Adré, eastern Chad

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Jan Bohm

Copyright Jan Bohm/MSF

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Project section OCP

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Maximum Size 2560px × 1922px 388.83 KB

Additional Information / Shotlist The war in Sudan continues to have a devastating impact on people. Fighting has displaced over four million people from their homes. For the past few days, there is heavy fighting taking place in West Darfur and El Geneina city. One can hear the explosions across the border in Adre, Chad, which is merely 25KM away. More people have started fleeing from El Geneina and surroundings, as and when possible. Between Wednesday and Friday last week, more people crossed the border in Adre, than what the team normally sees in a month. Among the thousands of refugees crossing, there were almost exclusively women and children.

Since two months ago, OCP has a small health post right on the border crossing, vaccinating children against measles, measuring malnutrition, and referring urgent cases straight to the hospital. Few hundred meters away from the border, in an area where people already in Chad are waiting for the new arrivals, OCG set up a water tank and started providing mental health support.

Since the increased fighting in El Geneina started in mid-last week, MSF hospitals have received 16 referrals, mostly people wounded in We have testimonies of refugees coming – mother of four children who fled El Geneina, after her sister’s house was bombed and her own, next to it, went on fire. A patient who travelled in a group of 16 people that was attacked, everyone killed, and this man survived by playing dead and waiting until a next group of refugees found him and brought him to the border, from which he was referred to the OCP hospital.