Survival and Resilience at the Chad-Sudan Border

Viewed from above, Ourang, a temporary transit settlement hastily set up to accommodate an influx of refugees from Sudan, looks like a constellation of white dots scattered on both sides of Adré, a small town on the Chad-Sudan border, 620 miles from N’Djamena, the capital of Chad.

Built with record speed, the camp was set up to accommodate a large influx of refugees fleeing violence and conflict in Sudan, their home country. The makeshift settlement, little more than a collection of tarpaulin tents, predominantly shelters women and children who have recently fled Sudan, each with a heart-wrenching story. Within the compound, two larger tents store food and kits containing items such as mats and basins for the refugees, who have left everything behind. Yet even these meager supplies prove to be scarce, and the tales of survival paint a harrowing picture.

Fatna Adam Mahamat, a mother of five, was among the fortunate ones who managed to cross the border alive. “Some people came to our home, subjected us to a brutal assault, and stole our money,” she said. Her husband wasn’t so lucky: he was murdered on the journey to Chad.

Susana Borges, the Emergency Coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Adré, oversees a health center that provides support to children and mothers with infants in the gynecological unit. “The most urgent health concerns we face,” said Borges, “are malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition. We’re doing our best, but the needs are massive.” Despite her team’s best efforts, the sheer scale of the crisis is overwhelming.

Chad, a nation grappling with immense development challenges, including climate shocks and food insecurity, now hosts one million refugees, amounting to one in every 17 people in the country. It’s a staggering statistic for a country with a poverty rate of 42%. Yet, despite all these challenges, Chad has kept its borders open, welcoming refugees and granting them equal rights, including the right to go to school and the right to move freely.

During a recent joint visit to the Chad-Sudan border with Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s Managing Director for Operations, announced $340 million in new financing to help Chad address these multifaceted challenges, including $90 million to respond to the massive influx of refugees from neighboring countries.

This is in addition to a $2.12 billion portfolio, of which $235 million in ongoing financing to support refugees and their host communities. “Not acting is not an option. Chad requires stepped-up international attention, coordination, and support. But to be effective, we must address both the immediate needs of people affected by such crises and as well as longer-term development, which is why our partnership with UNHCR is so important,” said Bjerde.

“We are grateful to the World Bank for its support to Sudanese refugees and their generous Chadian host communities in Eastern Chad,” said Grandi. “The sheer magnitude of the senseless, brutal crisis in Sudan, and the likelihood that it becomes protracted, require both humanitarian and development support. We hope the World Bank’s example will inspire other development actors to step up their interventions, as Chad cannot be left alone to deal with this major crisis.”

Thirty miles away from Adré, the village of Farchana also hosts a large population of refugees from Sudan. Many hail from the devastated region of Darfur, emblematic of the protracted conflict in Sudan, and have called the village home for the past twenty years. Farchana is a good example of the kind of partnerships that are needed to better address disasters such as the current Sudan refugee crisis. There, the World Bank is working with the government, UNHCR, and other partners to support refugees and host communities through the “Refugees and Host Communities Support Project” (PARCA).

Habiba Bilal has championed this successful integration of refugees in their host community. Trained as a teacher, the Chadian mother of four couldn’t bear to see refugee and local children wandering around all day without access to education. Taking matters into her own hands, she built a hut to use as a classroom and began to teach children of all ages.

Today, with the support of the World Bank, that first modest structure has blossomed into a fully functional school with six classrooms, equipped with teaching materials. In September, the school, named “École Habiba Bilal,” was officially inaugurated, welcoming more than 600 children, including both local and refugee students. The fact that the school is named after her fills Bilal with immense pride.

“The PARCA project, which provides both health and education services in several areas of the country, is an opportunity to strengthen the resilience of households, whether they are refugees or from the host communities. At the community level, this can also promote social cohesion and attenuate the long-term impact of forced displacement,” said Rasit Pertev the World Bank’s Country Manager in Chad, who attended the opening of the school with Anna Bjerde.

Through this World Bank-funded project, the government also supports economic activities via cash transfers, voluntary savings plans, and microloans. Beneficiaries also receive training to develop business plans for their microenterprises.

Halimé Mousa, a mother of five, shares her gratitude: “Thanks to this money, I have been able to start a small business. When my children get sick, I no longer need to ask for help to take them to the hospital,” she said. In the village of Farchana, resilience is a way of life, and hope persists. Fatma Issa, another Sudanese refugee, put it this way: “We escaped death, but life must go on.”