GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is gravely concerned by the rapidly increasing number of Sudanese refugees crossing into eastern Chad, with nearly 20,000 people – mostly exhausted and traumatized women and children – arriving in the past two weeks alone. 

The sharpest rise has been recorded at the Tiné border crossing in Wadi Fira Province, where almost 6,000 people arrived in just two days. Since 21 April, over 14,000 individuals have been counted in Wadi Fira, including 12,000 in the last week, but also 5,300 people in Ennedi Est over the past fortnight, including 1,000 on Sunday alone. This sudden influx reflects the escalating violence in Sudan’s North Darfur region, particularly in and around El Fasher, which is triggering mass displacement at an alarming pace.

The latest movements follow brutal attacks by armed groups in North Darfur, where assaults on displacement camps – including Zamzam and Abu Shouk – and El Fasher town have caused widespread terror. Refugees arriving in Chad report that over 10,000 people are still en route, desperately trying to reach the border to escape the violence.