People fleeing Sudan - mostly women and children - continue to seek safety in eastern Chad, where already over 550 000 refugees and returnees have fled in the past year, from a brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that started in April 2023.



A retrospective mortality survey carried out by MSF among Sudanese refugees shared the appalling scale of the wave of violence taken place in Sudan last June, including ethnically targeted violence. The accounts of refugees who have reached Chad have described unbearable scale of violence, including looting, burning of homes, beatings, sexual violence, and massacres. Many had only two options: “flee to Chad or be killed”. They fled massively, in groups - many stopped by shooting and bombing on the way.



Often overlooked in times of conflict, women pay a heavy price in the midst violence and shown their unwavering determination to protect their families. Many women fleeing Sudan have lost their children, their husband and other family members – both on their journeys to Chad but also in their hometowns. Some tried to resist against armed men to protect their loved ones, risking their own lives.



After fleeing atrocities and finding safety in Eastern Chad, Sudanese refugees continue to live in dire conditions, in makeshift camps, desperately short of clean water, food and decent sanitation. Many have been resettled in official refugees’ camps in remote areas, in the middle of desertic areas of the Ouaddai province, where it is almost impossible to move around, find work or harvest the fields. As a result, people are fully dependent on humanitarian aid, that is lacking because of funding and coordination. Since mid-2023, MSF has been raising the alarm on the wide scale-up required to meet the basics needs but the humanitarian response remains inadequate with unoptimistic projections.



In Aboutengue camp, currently hosting over 45,000 people, many refugees have arrived in July and August 2023, and have shared accounts of atrocities that swept through El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, in June 2023 and other areas of the Darfur region. Taking the role of the main provider and caregivers for their families, many women continued to relentlessly strive to provide for their loved ones and be the pillars within the community. Today, in the eastern Chad camps, a generation of women and girls continue to carry this huge burden placed on them.



Beyond highlighting the dire conditions in which refugees live in, this communication package aims at sharing the diverse voices and experiences of women of different generations from the camps, shedding light on the role women play in times of conflict. This collection of testimonials will serve as a powerful reminder of these women’s courage and unwavering determination in protecting their family while fleeing ethnic-based violence in Darfur.