War in Sudan has pushed about one million refugees and returnees into isolated and impoverished parts of neighbouring Chad. Crisis Group expert Charles Bouëssel visited this region to learn how it is coping with the influx.
Sudan's civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has fuelled the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. The conflict has forced millions to flee their homes, including about one million people who have sought shelter in neighbouring Chad. This influx has placed immense strain on Chad's isolated and already impoverished eastern provinces, particularly Ouaddaï, whose population has increased by 60 per cent in the space of two years. The surge in the number of inhabitants has driven up demand for housing and staples such as cooking oil. It has also sharpened competition for access to scarce resources like firewood and water. Disputes occasionally flare between newcomers and locals over dwindling supplies. Roadside brick kilns have expanded to meet the feverish demand for housing.Before the two Sudanese belligerents came to blows, Chadian traders from the border areas imported goods such as sugar and soap from Sudan, where production and transport costs as well as taxes are lower. But these supply chains largely collapsed as the fighting intensified. Now, these goods are imported from Libya or brought in from Chad's capital, N'Djamena, pushing up prices because of the distance the commodities must travel.
The conflict next door has also given rise to a sprawling illicit economy in Ouaddaï, where traffickers are selling goods and supplies looted by fighters in Sudan. To take one example, traders are marketing stolen cars in the province and beyond at a third of their original price. Fuel smuggling has also become a lucrative sideline as RSF members transport supplies from Libya through Chad via tanker trucks. Local traffickers working for the RSF then pour the fuel into barrels, which are loaded onto Toyota pickups in Chadian towns like Abéché and Adré, before crossing the border into western Darfur. Some of the fuel is also sold locally in eastern Chad.
This photo essay looks at how the conflict in Sudan and the arrival of refugees and returnees is reshaping living conditions and public attitudes in Chad’s eastern provinces.
People wait for food to be distributed at the Adré provisional reception site in Ouaddaï, Chad, March 2024.
Women wait for medical check-ups at the refugee and returnee reception centre in Adré, February 2024. Eighty-nine per cent of the newcomers are women and children. Food aid, whether in cash or kind, lasts only two to three weeks per month, forcing families to skip meals, beg on the streets or sell the few belongings they managed to carry with them from Sudan. Though humanitarian workers have so far helped provide shelter and food to most refugees and returnees, agencies remain critically underfunded.
Women wait in line to fill jerrycans with drinking water in the Adré refugee and returnee camp, Ouaddaï province, February 2024. In some camps, each person receives just 6l of water per day, far below the 20l minimum recommended by the World Health Organization.
A woman and her daughter fetch water from a well several kilometres from their village on the road between Adré and Farchana in Ouaddaï, March 2024. Sometimes, newcomers and locals argue about the sharing of wells where water levels have fallen dangerously low.
“The state has done nothing for us since Tombalbaye [Chad’s first president, 1962-1975]”, this farmer from Ouaddaï told Crisis Group, complaining that he must travel 10km per day to fetch water. February 2024.
Idriss, a Sudanese hairdresser, fled the city of El Geneina in November 2023. He managed to bring some equipment and has set up shop in Adré, where he trims the hair of male clients. With no savings and no family, he hopes to stay and continue running his business, but Chadian authorities and the UN refugee agency intend to relocate him to an isolated camp far from potential clients.
A woman cutting wood near Farchana refugee camp, in Ouaddaï, 2024. With farmland scarce, newly arrived farmers struggle to gain access to plots of land. In towns, the labour market is overwhelmed, especially in Abéché, where three of ten residents are refugees from Sudan.
A mud brick factory in Adré in 2024. The rising population in Ouaddaï has led to a surge in demand for construction materials. Women refugees and returnees sometimes work in brick production, even when they are not used to this kind of work, because it is one of the few lines of business that is hiring.
Competition for jobs has driven down wages, particularly in domestic work, while everyone is struggling to find employment. Rents have doubled, sometimes squeezing out locals in favour of refugees and returnees who can afford the new rates.
Newcomers who have settled in towns add to already high levels of unemployment, leading to further downward pressure on wages. Domestic jobs, which are in great demand among women and girls who have fled to the city, have been particularly hard hit, with a sharp drop in pay.
People walk in the street as night falls in Adré. As poverty and unemployment increase, crime is rising, too. Residents and humanitarian workers report increasing theft and insecurity. As local people grow frustrated with their lot, xenophobia has worsened, with many residents holding newcomers responsible for rising costs and scarce jobs.
Pickup trucks transporting men to the northern region of Tibesti, which is known as an artisanal gold mining hub and a gateway to Libya. Many end up either working in the gold mines or attempting the onward journey to Europe from the Libyan coast. A seat in shared transport to Tibesti costs around 60,000 CFA francs (92 euros), a high price, yet many are willing to risk traversing the desert in the hope of a better future.
(Left) A car loaded with goods on a busy road between Abéché and Farchana. Many of the products looted in Sudan are also sold in Chad, fuelling the anger of refugees and returnees who see Chadians profiting from their misery by trading in stolen goods. Many pickups stolen in Darfur, for instance, are resold in Abéché at knock-down prices. (Right) A major fuel trafficking network, organised by the RSF and benefiting local traffickers, also operates in the region. Barrels of fuel are loaded into pickups, which cross the border at night.
Young herder and his camels, Ouaddaï, March 2024.
Cattle breeders next to a watering hole, in Ouaddaï , Chad, 2024. The arrival of refugees and returnees is exacerbating longstanding ethnic tensions in the region, especially between Arab and non-Arab populations. Since the 1980s, the arrival of nomadic Arab, Zaghawa and Gorane herders – who have held political power in Chad since the 1990s – has transformed the region into grazing land. Sedentary farming communities, such as the Maba, have long felt their hold on the land and local influence to be eroding. The arrival of predominantly non-Arab refugees and returnees from Sudan has deepened divisions, leading to sporadic outbreaks of violence. In 2019, similar land conflicts resulted in hundreds of deaths after disputes escalated. Many local farmers accuse Arab herders of allowing their livestock to trample crops with impunity.
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Djido belongs to the Maba community, which considers itself the original population of Ouaddaï. The Maba fear that the recent influx of refugees and returnees, along with shifting demographics, will erode their customary power and land rights, further undermining their standing in the region.
A farmer and his flock wait in the shade for their turn at the well. Ouaddaï region, eastern Chad.
The war in Sudan has triggered not just a humanitarian disaster, but deep economic and social transformations in eastern Chad. As resources dwindle, crime rises and tensions heighten, both newcomers and local communities face an increasingly precarious future.
The Chadian authorities have taken a number of commendable steps, including starting infrastructure projects and making cash transfers to vulnerable households. They should continue and – where possible – expand these efforts. A more visible state presence in affected areas could also help defuse intercommunal tensions. These measures will require stronger and more sustained international support to succeed – a tall order at present. But without more aid, the spillover of Sudan’s war will continue to torment the region.
