N'Djamena, Chad, April 21, 2023 — Aleksandra Roulet-Cimpric, IRC Chad Country Director, said:
“Following intense internal conflict in Sudan, up to 15,000 people have been estimated to have arrived over the border from Sudan into Chad since last weekend. We are seeing that the refugees arriving over the border are traumatised and are arriving with very little provisions. There are relief organisations that are providing support to new arrivals and as of now, the greatest need is for health services as well as water, sanitation, hygiene and protection services, particularly for women and girls.
"In the coming days, IRC will respond to critical needs of water with water trucking services and we will continue preparation to respond to health, nutrition, sanitation and protection needs of the incoming population from Sudan.”
The IRC has delivered vital humanitarian programming in Chad since 2004 in response to the refugee crisis from neighbouring Darfur. Today the IRC works across the country to deliver integrated interventions in health, including reproductive health, nutrition and water and sanitation; women’s protection and empowerment, with a focus on fighting against gender-based violence; and economic recovery, with an emphasis on cash transfer and income-generating activities.
The IRC has a main office in Khartoum with three field offices in El-Gadarif, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. Currently, all operations are suspended except for IRC operations in El-Gadarif. In Sudan, the IRC supports people impacted by conflict and crisis, including women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, refugees, mixed populations and host communities. We provide an integrated health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program and also provide child protection services and comprehensive women and girls’ protection and empowerment services including to gender-based violence (GBV) survivors.