{"id":55611,"date":"2025-10-11T20:36:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T17:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=55611"},"modified":"2025-10-11T20:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T17:36:29","slug":"the-guardian-sudanese-women-left-to-survive-alone-in-chads-desert-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/the-guardian-sudanese-women-left-to-survive-alone-in-chads-desert-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian: Sudanese Women Left to Survive Alone in Chad\u2019s Desert Camps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the war in Sudan rages on and drives more people across the border, malnutrition rates are soaring in remote camps in Chad, where women and children make up 86% of refugees.<\/p>\n

This was reported by The Guardian correspondent Kamil Ahmed from the border town of Metche, along the Sudan\u2013Chad frontier.<\/p>\n

In his detailed account of the plight of Sudanese refugees\u2014most of them women and children\u2014Ahmed recounts the ordeal of 18-year-old Makka Ibrahim Mohamed, who clung to her seat for hours as the ambulance jolted along the muddy road to the hospital. She was in labor, suffering excruciating pain after her uterus ruptured, as the vehicle bounced through potholes and dips across the Chadian desert.<\/p>\n

Most Sudanese refugees who fled to Chad since 2023 now endure this harsh reality, living on the edge of survival\u2014mostly women.<\/p>\n

Deadly Distances<\/strong><\/p>\n

These refugees live in isolated desert camps where food and water are scarce, jobs nonexistent, and medical help lies hours away\u2014sometimes too far to save lives.<\/p>\n

The hospital Makka needed, run by M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF), was located in Metche, one of several camps in eastern Chad, more than two hours away by car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to get infections constantly during my pregnancy,\u201d Makka said. \u201cI went to the clinic seven times. When labor started, I couldn\u2019t give birth naturally because my uterus collapsed. I waited two hours for the ambulance. All I remember is the pain\u2014it was unbearable. I passed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother, Aisha Khamis Abdallah, 40, feared losing both her daughter and grandchild. But Makka was rushed into surgery upon arrival, and an emergency cesarean saved both her life and that of her baby, Mois.<\/p>\n

A Growing Threat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even before the current refugee influx, Chad had the world\u2019s second-highest maternal mortality rate. The arrival of Sudanese women has only deepened the crisis.<\/p>\n

At the MSF hospital in Metche, where 824 babies have been delivered this year\u2014most in emergencies\u2014doctors save many, but they worry deeply about those who never make it in time.<\/p>\n

Since Sudan\u2019s civil war erupted two years ago, women and children have comprised 86% of the refugees reaching Chad. Eastern Chad now hosts around 1.2 million Sudanese, including 400,000 displaced by earlier violence in Darfur.<\/p>\n

Many men stayed behind to protect their homes and land; others were killed, captured, or forced to fight. Those still able to work leave the barren camps in search of opportunities in N\u2019Djamena or neighboring Libya.<\/p>\n

Women Left Alone<\/strong><\/p>\n

That leaves women on their own\u2014struggling to feed their children and care for the elderly. To reduce overcrowding near the border, the Chadian government relocated refugees to smaller camps like Metche, each hosting around 50,000 people, but in remote areas lacking services or opportunities.<\/p>\n

In Metche, MSF\u2019s hospital began as a cluster of tents and expanded to include a single operating room\u2014little else.<\/p>\n

There are no jobs. Families walk for hours to gather firewood. Each person survives on just nine liters of water a day\u2014less than half the globally recommended minimum of 20 liters.<\/p>\n

This isolation means that hospitals receive women in critical, often fatal, condition. Only one ambulance connects Metche\u2019s hospital to the nearest clinic in Alacha camp, home to another 50,000 refugees including Makka\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

MSF teams have documented women in agonizing labor waiting all night for the ambulance to arrive, its journey slowed by flooded wadis and impassable muddy roads during the rainy season.<\/p>\n

Every Birth an Emergency<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every case we see is an emergency,\u201d said Dr. Alejandra Kripovic, a surgeon at the MSF hospital in Metche. \u201cSome women walk for hours or ride donkeys to reach us. Imagine being nine months pregnant, in labor, traveling for hours in a donkey cart. Delay is deadly\u2014but the suffering itself takes a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worsening malnutrition adds to the risk of complications, including uterine rupture\u2014now a grimly familiar diagnosis for MSF staff.<\/p>\n

After her C-section, Makka remained hospitalized for two months, weakened by infection and malnutrition. Her husband had left to look for work, leaving her dependent on her mother.<\/p>\n

Children and Malnutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n

The malnutrition ward has expanded to six tents, now overflowing. Children lie beneath mosquito nets in the sweltering heat, while medical staff prepare treatments and weigh infants with improvised scales made of buckets and rope.<\/p>\n

Mild cases receive packets of peanut-based therapeutic paste; severe ones are treated with fortified milk. Makka\u2019s baby is fed through a syringe.<\/p>\n

Nearby, Suhaiba Abdallah Abubakar\u2019s 11-month-old son, Sufyan Suleiman, is fed through a nasal tube. He had been sick all year, but local clinics only gave him painkillers until Suhaiba made the difficult journey from Alacha to Metche.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I see more children arriving in this tent,\u201d she said. \u201cThe food we get is poor, it\u2019s not enough, and it has no nutrients.
\nIf we were home, we could cope. You can farm or work. Here, we depend entirely on what they give us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they receive is a small ration of sorghum, oil, and salt\u2014distributed every two months. It\u2019s nutritionally deficient, and the little cash they\u2019re given can\u2019t buy much at the overpriced weekly market.<\/p>\n

Fleeing from El Geneina<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suhaiba fled to Chad in 2023 after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked El Geneina that June. With no jobs in Chad, her husband left for Libya, hoping to earn enough for the family to join him. She now lives with her in-laws, sharing whatever food they have.<\/p>\n

But she says rations are already shrinking. Cuts in international aid budgets\u2014from the US, UK, and several European countries\u2014threaten to make things even worse.<\/p>\n

Though Sudan\u2019s war has created the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, UN agencies in Chad received only 69% of the funding needed in 2024.
\nThe World Food Programme warned in June that food rations could be reduced further without new funding.<\/p>\n

Every Woman Has a Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Metche, a group of Sudanese women gather under a tree. Among them is 65-year-old Azza Dahiya Osman, weaving dry palm leaves into simple handicrafts to sell at the market. Others sell peanuts or work for local farmers\u2014sometimes without pay.<\/p>\n

Each has her own story of pain. One woman lost her baby after clinics refused to admit her during labor.<\/p>\n

Osman, who suffers from high blood pressure, said chronic illness is only treated when it becomes life-threatening:
\n\u201cDo I have to die to get medicine? I kept searching for help and couldn\u2019t even find the drugs I need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fear for El Fasher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Osman fled Sudan two years ago after the RSF stormed El Geneina\u2014the first city in Darfur to fall. Now, people in Metche fear that El Fasher, the last city resisting RSF control, will be next.<\/p>\n

The RSF claims to fight a Sudanese government that has long ignored the marginalized, but Osman responds bitterly:
\n\u201cThey are liars. They are the ones who killed us. We can never live under their rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

RSF dominance in Darfur and its creation of a parallel administration mean refugees in Chad have no path home. Opportunities are scarce\u2014young men work in brick factories or gold mines in northern Chad, or migrate further in search of better chances.<\/p>\n

Lives in Limbo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among them is 21-year-old Afaf Abdelmalek, once living comfortably and employed by the government in El Fasher before her brother-in-law was executed by RSF fighters during their failed assault on the city in 2023.<\/p>\n

Her elder brother and sister remain in Sudan; she hasn\u2019t heard from them since and doesn\u2019t know if they are alive. Her days now revolve around survival\u2014fetching water and firewood with her elderly mother, sister, and young niece.<\/p>\n

There are no schools for the little girl, still traumatized after witnessing her father\u2019s killing.
\nThe UN refugee agency warns that shrinking budgets could cut secondary education programs, leaving 155,000 children out of school next year.<\/p>\n

The child freezes with fear whenever she sees a man on a motorcycle\u2014the image recalling the RSF raids that once terrorized their neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Afaf said, \u201cWe can\u2019t forget what we saw. My niece still trembles if she sees a man on a motorbike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holding on to the Past<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite everything, Afaf tries to nurture a trace of joy. Her family\u2019s shelter is surrounded by a small garden of vegetables and flowers\u2014reminders of a once-prosperous Sudan of lemon and pomegranate trees.<\/p>\n

Unable to buy seeds, she collects plant cuttings from the roadside and replants them at home, waiting for the rains to bring them back to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in the morning,\u201d she said, \u201cI drink tea standing in the garden. It gives me a moment of peace\u2014reminds me of life before the war, makes me forget everything for a while. For a moment, I feel that maybe, someday, things will be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adapted from The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies As the war in Sudan rages on and drives more people across the border, malnutrition rates are soaring in remote camps in Chad, where women and children make up 86% of refugees. This was reported by The Guardian correspondent Kamil Ahmed from the border town of Metche, along the Sudan\u2013Chad frontier. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55613,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55611\/revisions\/55613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}