Darfur Women’s Forum: Risk of rape confines refugees in Chad to camps

Darfuri women refugees in eastern Chad are “unable to leave camps to relieve themselves and to shelter for risk of rape and serious attacks,” laments a report by the Darfur Women’s Forum, which also points to the increase in domestic violence, and the emergence of children begging in the markets of villages adjacent to the camps to obtain food, as aid is not distributed on a regular basis. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced the opening of a new hospital in the new Ourang camp for Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad on Saturday.

Refugees in eastern Chad suffer from a lack of adequate housing, food and drinking water and lack of health care, the report said. He pointed out that there are a large number of refugees in the open in the town of Adré, the Darfur Women’s Forum says

The forum stressed the lack of health services, both preventive, curative and reproductive health, in addition to the lack of follow-up of pregnant women with the increasing number of women and the lack of nutrition programs for children. He pointed to the lack of routine vaccination inside the camps except in Adré. The report warned that inadequate toilets lead to open defecation.

Safe spaces

The forum pointed to the difficulty of obtaining drinking water, relying on drawing creek and stagnant water.

The report called for adequate food for refugees and the protection of camps, taking into account the specific challenges faced by women and girls. It also stressed the provision of safe spaces for women and girls in the camps to practice their own activities.

New MSF health centre

On Saturday morning, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) opened a health centre in the new Ourang camp for Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad.

The 86-bed centre is expected to provide medical services to more than 37,000 new Sudanese refugees who fled the war recently, along with an estimated number of unregistered refugees as well as people in the area around the camp. It is the first step of its kind in the new refugee camps.

MSF highlights that the new camps in eastern Chad are suffering from deteriorating health and living conditions.