Chad was already homing a large number of displaced people from Sudan before the outbreak of hostilities past April, but the UN estimates that one out of every 17 Sudanese people is a refugee.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on the international community to support Chad’s efforts to deal with the refugee influx.

As of last week, over 400,000 Sudanese refugees arrived in Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira provinces and, according to the UN, 86% of them were women and children coming mostly from Darfur.

The displaced people arrived in desperate conditions, particularly in the border town of Adre, which hosts over 150,000 Sudanese at spontaneous settlement, Ghrandi said. Other 75,000 refugees were moved from Adre province to two newly built settlements.

Although humanitarian partners have stepped up efforts to guarantee access to basic services such as health, water, sanitation and food, the influx is straining resources and communities, which were already stretched to the limit, warned the office of UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres’ spokesman.

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