Health care concerns among Sudanese refugees in Chad

The Sudanese refugees of camp Touloum in eastern Chad complain about deterioration of health services and a shortage of medicines. They also fear the health conditions might worsen due to the rainy season. The camp’s Sheikh, Haider Suleiman Gardia, explained to Radio Dabanga that the status of health and medical treatment is low in the camp. In addition to medicine shortages, the Department of Psychiatry is also struggling. Gardia pointed out that a large number of patients suffer from mental illness because of their experiences in Darfur since the beginning of 2003, when the war started. He appealed to humanitarian organisations to expedite provision of medicines and improve health services before the rains block roads. An NGO from the USA has reportedly begun distributing clothes to nearly 9,000 Sudanese refugees at camp Jabal, also in eastern Chad, where each person can now get two pieces of clothing. One refugee from the camp told Radio Dabanga that the clothing includes trousers, shirts, skirts and blouses to be distributed especially to basic and secondary school students, trainees at the vocational centres, those with mental illness and vulnerable groups. The source said that there is an acute shortage of plastic sheeting and mosquito nets, as the UN High Commission for Refugees has not distributed any in the camp for five years in spite of repeated requests. File photo by Albert González Farran/UNAMID Related: Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad lack shelter, safe drinking water (30 May 2013)