after Egypt and Chad, refugees are heading towards Italy, according to the UNHCR

For just over a year, civil war has raged in Sudan, causing “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world”, according to the United Nations. A conference, co-chaired by France, Germany and the EU, opens Monday in Paris, to remobilize on this forgotten crisis.

Paris has promised humanitarian aid of 110 million euros, Berlin, 244 million, the European Union will contribute 350 million, and Washington 138 million. Donations will be “well over a billion euros”a diplomat told Agence France-Presse and Reuters, about this international conference which opens Monday April 15, 2024 in Paris.

Beyond the donations collected, the conference also aims to coordinate mediation to end the conflict. The terrible war that broke out in Sudan on April 15, 2023 pits two enemy generals against each other: Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the head of the regular army, who faces Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, his former deputy and commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. This conflict caused tens of thousands of deaths and more than 8 million displaced people, while Sudan has already experienced two civil wars. In Darfur, in the southwest of the country, victims even speak of “genocide” and the United Nations speaks “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world”. Those who can flee this fratricidal war towards Egypt and Chad, despite dramatic conditions, and some begin to head towards Europe.

500,000 refugees in Egypt

What matters in Cairo is less the ideological side of the conflict than the strengthening of the Egyptian position in the region, particularly on the question of the Ethiopian dam which has created tensions between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia since more than 10 years. Hemedti having allied himself with Addis Ababa, it is unthinkable for Cairo not to support al-Burhan. Over the past year, al-Burhan has been received twice in Cairo, unlike Hemedti, who did not have these honors, and who is supported by the United Arab Emirates as well as Wagner’s Russian militia. .

But in the midst of this geopolitical game, as al-Burhan continues to lose ground to the Rapid Support Forces, it is the Sudanese who suffer. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 8 million Sudanese are internally displaced or refugees. In Egypt alone, half a million people have fled the fighting.

Since June 2023, when the war had broken out for two months, a visa has been required for Sudanese to cross the border. So, most favor the illegal route, which sometimes results in tragedy. Many recount waiting in the desert, sometimes the lack of food and water before managing to reach Egypt while escaping the border police. Once they arrive, a new obstacle course awaits them. They must wait months before they can register as UN asylum seekers, with fear of being arrested at any time due to their illegal status in Egypt and being sent back to Sudan in war.

In Chad, extraordinary hospitality despite the risk of famine

In Chad, nearly 600,000 new Sudanese refugees arrived in one year, bringing the total number of refugees hosted in this country, which is one of the poorest in the world, to more than 1.2 million. This represents more than 6% of the total population. On the border, the town of Adré has been totally overwhelmed by the recent influx of refugees, the population has tripled. However, Chadians continue to welcome new arrivals every day – another 10,000 for the month of March.

This rather extraordinary hospitality was presented as an example by the UN. “They are our brothers, so we naturally gave them everythingsays Mariam, a Chadian farmer, but we are becoming as poor as them”she is alarmed.
Tensions are already appearing around agricultural land and natural resources, in a particularly arid region: “Chad has been waging a humanitarian war for a year, explains Colonel Mahamat Ali Sebey, the prefect of Adré, the Assoungha department is full. We have a recurring water problem, between divided land and fields where people cultivated”.

Refugees begin to arrive in Italy

Famine is already threatening neighboring Darfur, where, in the Zamzam refugee camp for example, a child dies every two hours, according to the NGO Doctors Without Borders. This famine now risks spreading to Chad, if the situation persists and people cannot farm.

This would be dramatic because the UN is sorely lacking in funding, to the point of not being sure of being able to distribute even a minimum of food next month. Humanitarians therefore place a lot of hope in the Paris conference, especially since they have the feeling that the Sudanese crisis is relegated to the background of international attention. “Once again, this crisis in Sudan, if we look at the number of refugees in the various neighboring countries, it is undoubtedly the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world currently”describes Jérôme Merlin, deputy representative of the UNHCR (High Commission for Refugees) in Chad. “Chad is a bit of a dam in this regionhe warns, but if this dam breaks, there could be large-scale movements, particularly towards Europe.” These movements are already perceptible. At least 6,000 Sudanese have arrived in Italy in recent months, according to the UNHCR.