In an era of dramatic advances in communications, radio retains its power to entertain, educate, inform and inspire, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, marking World Radio Day with a call to celebrate both radio and sports as ways of helping people achieve their potential.
Overall, some 1.2 million Sudanese have found shelter in eastern Chad, mostly after fleeing intensifying violence in their country.
More than 844,000 crossed the border after war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. Prior to this, Chad was hosting roughly 409,000 Sudanese refugees who had fled earlier conflict in Darfur.
The situation is “a crisis of humanity”, said UNHCR’s Principal Situation Coordinator in Chad, Dossou Patrice Ahouansou.
The latest wave of displacement began in April following attacks by armed groups in North Darfur. Violence has surged since war erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Camps for people uprooted by the most recent violence have been attacked including Zamzam and Abu Shouk, along with the town of El Fasher, killing more than 300 civilians.
Last Thursday, the UN World Food Programme’s facility in El Fasher was repeatedly shelled, according to a report from UN aid coordination office OCHA.
A day later, Eldaman International Hospital in Al Obeid was struck by a drone attack, killing at least six health workers and injuring more than 15 others.
Both attacks were reportedly carried out by the RSF.
In just over a month, 68,556 refugees have crossed into Chad’s Wadi Fira and Ennedi Est provinces, at an average of 1,400 new arrivals per day.
More than seven in 10 “report serious human rights violations — physical and sexual violence, arbitrary detention, forced recruitment”, said Mr. Ahouansou.
Based on interviews with 6,810 newly arrived refugees, he said that six out of 10 reported being separated from their family members.
Mr. Ahouansou spoke of seven-year-old Hawa, whose family home in Zamzam was bombed. After her mother was killed, she fled to the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people.
“There again had been bombing” and this time it killed Hawa’s father and two brothers, he said.
With only her 18-year-old sister remaining, Hawa escaped to Chad. She was severely injured and had to have a leg amputated.
“It’s difficult to hear, but this is the reality,” said Mr. Ahouansou, emphasizing that there were thousands facing similar situations.
The UNHCR official also recounted chilling testimonies of forced labour along the perilous journeys, where many reportedly die because of the heat and lack of water.
“When armed groups see you leaving, they decide to let the donkey or the horse go. And you, as a human being, as a man… they will use you as a horse and ask you now to draw all your family members,” he said.
Despite efforts by humanitarian actors and local authorities, the emergency response remains severely underfunded.
Just 14 per cent of shelter needs have been met and refugees receive only five litres of water per person per day — far below the 15–20 litre international standard. Around 239,000 refugees remain stranded at the border.
“The lives and futures of millions of innocent civilians hang in the balance,” said UNHCR spokesperson Eujin Byun, who stressed that this was also a “crisis of women and children” as they make up to nine out of 10 refugees crossing the border.
“Without a significant increase in funding, life-saving assistance cannot be delivered at the scale and at the speed that is required,” Mr. Ahouansou said.
“Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks…The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity,” said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform.
In its latest update, the IPC estimated that one in five people in Gaza – 500,000 – faces starvation.
Prices have soared for basics such as a 25 kilogramme sack of wheat flour, which now costs between $235 and $520, representing a 3,000 per cent price spike since February.
“In a scenario of a protracted and large-scale military operation and continuation of the humanitarian and commercial blockade, there would be a critical lack of access to supplies and services that are essential to survival,” the IPC said.
The development comes amid continuing reports of Israeli bombardment across Gaza on Monday.
On Saturday, another school run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA was hit, this time in Gaza City at around 6.30pm, reportedly killing two people and injuring an unknown number.
A day earlier, four more people were reportedly killed when another UNRWA facility was bombed in Jabalia camp, north Gaza. The agency’s office was “completely destroyed” and three surrounding buildings sustained severe damage, including a distribution centre. There were no supplies in the distribution centre when it was hit, owing to the continuing Israeli blockade, UNRWA said, noting that it ran out of food for Gaza “more than two weeks ago”.
Echoing the wider aid community’s rejection of the Israeli plan to manage deliveries of food and non-food items across Gaza’s governorates, the IPC deemed it “highly insufficient to meet the population’s essential needs for food, water, shelter and medicine”.
IPC’s assessments help aid agencies decide where needs are greatest around the world. Food insecurity is measured on a scale of one to five, with IPC1 indicating no hunger and IPC5 denoting famine conditions.
According to the latest data, 15 per cent of people in the governorates of Rafah, North Gaza and Gaza are classified as IPC5. Most of the remainder are little better off.
Amid this disastrous and deteriorating situation, Israel’s proposed distribution plan will likely create “significant access barriers [to aid] for large segments of the population”, the IPC said.
And pointing to Israel’s recently announced large-scale military operation across the Gaza Strip and persistent obstacles impeding the work of aid agencies, it warned that there was “a high risk that ‘Famine (IPC Phase 5)’ will occur” between now and 30 September.
With hunger everywhere, a high number of households have reported having to resort to “extreme coping strategies” such as collecting rubbish to sell for food. But one in four of this number say that “no valuable garbage remains”, while social order “is breaking down” the IPC reported.
Violent clashes between armed militias and forces of the military Government have escalated dramatically across North Darfur in recent weeks as Sudan marked two years of civil war.
The El Fasher and Zamzam camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, were disproportionately affected.
“The bombs were falling on the hospital. The sick and their mothers were killed. Those of us who survived left with only our children on our backs,” said Hawa, a mother of three who was inside a hospital in the Zamzam camp during the shelling, speaking to the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
The attacks have destroyed critical infrastructure, halted water trucking services, and led to the collapse of already fragile health services, according to the UN.
Zamzam IDP camp, which prior to the recent shelling housed at least 400,000 people, has now been nearly emptied. The UN has reported that over 332,000 people have fled the camp.
Humanitarian organisations are warning of increasing reports of sexual violence, the targeting of civilians, and forced recruitment – particularly by elements of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
The sudden and massive influx of IDPs into already overwhelmed towns and host communities is increasing the strain on health services, water infrastructure, and local food systems.
While IDP camps face soaring demand for emergency shelters, clean water, food, and protection services, fuel shortages have led to the near-total suspension of water trucking operations in many areas, including El Fasher.
The sick and their mothers were killed. Those of us who survived left with only our children on our backs
In Central Darfur, health partners report rising levels of malnutrition, especially among children.
“In the past, we had three to four meals per day. For the past two years, giving [my children] one meal a day is a miracle,” Hawa recounted.
Although the UN is currently delivering life-saving food assistance in Tawila — North Darfur, an immediate scale-up in humanitarian assistance is needed to prevent tens of thousands of newly-displaced people from falling further into acute vulnerability.
UN agencies and their partners are urgently appealing for increased funding to avert further loss of life and irreversible humanitarian consequences.
