In Chad camps, survivors recount Sudan war horrors, many in critical condition physically & psychologically

AFTER surviving atrocities in their homeland Sudan and the perilous journey abroad, the refugees are now confronting the looming threat of famine. The scarcity of water in the camps in Chad has generated tensions that humanitarian organisations have struggled to calm. Read more.

From France24
By Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Dated Saturday, 23 December 2023 - 17:27 - here is a copy in full:

In Chad camps, survivors recount Sudan war horrors

Adré (Chad) (AFP) – Sitting outside her makeshift shelter in eastern Chad, Sudanese refugee Mariam Adam Yaya warmed up tea on some firewood in a bid to quell the pangs of hunger.

Thousands of Sudanese have fled for neighbouring Chad and found refuge in overcrowded camps such as Adre © Denis Sassou Gueipeur / AFP

The 34-year-old from the Masalit ethnic group crossed the border on foot after a four-day trek with no provisions and her eight-year-old son clinging to her back.

She said "heavily armed" men attacked her village, forcing her to flee and leave seven of her children behind amid brutal violence that has sparked fears of ethnic cleansing.

Sudan has since April 15 been plunged into a civil war pitting army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, his former deputy and commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Thousands have fled for neighbouring Chad and found refuge in overcrowded camps such as Adre where Yaya has settled.

In the western Darfur region, paramilitary operations have left civilian victims belonging to the non-Arab Masalit group in what the United Nations and NGOs say is a suspected genocide.

In the West Darfur town of Ardamata alone, armed groups killed more than 1,000 people in November, according to the European Union.

"What we went through in Ardamata is horrifying. The Rapid Support Forces killed elderly people and children indiscriminately," Yaya told AFP.

Trauma

Chad, a country in central Africa that is the world's second least developed according to the United Nations, has hosted the highest number of Sudanese refugees.

The UN says 484,626 people have sheltered there since the fighting broke out, with armed groups forcing more than 8,000 people to flee to Chad in one week.

The United States and other Western nations have accused the RSF and its allies of committing crimes against humanity and acts of ethnic cleansing 

© Denis Sassou Gueipeur / AFP

Formal camps managed by NGOs and informal settlements erected spontaneously have sprouted throughout the border region of Ouaddai.

A traumatised Amira Khamis, 46, said she was targeted due to her Masalit ethnicity and has lost five of her children.

Recovering in an emergency medical structure run by the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) near the Adre camp after shrapnel fractured her feet, she told AFP women and young girls were raped.

"They systematically kill all the people of dark black colour," she said.

Mahamat Nouredine, a 19-year-old who is nursing a fractured arm and has lost four relatives in the violence, said the RSF mercilessly hounded the Masalit community before he escaped to Chad.

"A group of RSF followed us to a hospital and tried to kill everyone... they laid us on the ground in groups of 20 and fired at us," he said.

"Their unspoken goal is to kill people due to their skin colour."

'Critical conditions'

The United States and other Western nations have accused the RSF and its allies of committing crimes against humanity and acts of ethnic cleansing.

An estimate by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project puts the war's death toll at 12,000. Almost seven million people have fled their homes, according to the UN.

After surviving atrocities in their homeland and the perilous journey abroad, the refugees are now confronting the looming threat of famine.

The scarcity of water in the camps has generated tensions that humanitarian organisations have struggled to calm © Denis Sassou Gueipeur / AFP

Yaya said she and her child have "barely" eaten since their arrival in Chad.

The scarcity of water in the camps has generated tensions that humanitarian organisations have struggled to calm.

Gerard Uparpiu, MSF's project coordinator in Adre, said the influx of Sudanese refugees was creating a "worrying" situation.

"We receive them in critical conditions. They are shaken physically and psychologically," he added.

MSF's hospital is surrounded by fencing and constantly monitored by a guard, measures necessitated by the brutality of a conflict that has not spared the wounded.

"They also attacked us when I was being taken to Chad to receive treatment," said Amir Adam Haroun, a Masalit refugee whose leg was broken by an explosive.

View original: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231223-in-chad-camps-survivors-recount-sudan-war-horrors

ENDS 

Chad's first dengue outbreak: what you should know

Report from EconoTimes - https://www.econotimes.com/

By Dr. Eunice Anyango Owino*

Dated Monday, 30 October 2023, 10:56 AM UTC - here is a copy in full:

Chad's first dengue fever outbreak: what you should know

Chad has reported its first dengue outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The country’s health ministry declared an outbreak on 15 August and so far 1,342 suspected cases have been reported, 41 of them confirmed in the laboratory. One death was reported among the patients with lab-confirmed cases. The outbreak started in Ouaddaï province in eastern Chad, currently the outbreak epicentre. Illnesses have also been reported in three other provinces. Godfred Akoto Boafo spoke to medical entomologist Eunice Anyango Owino about the disease.

Mosquitoes are the primary medium for contracting dengue. Oregon State University/Flickr

What causes dengue fever and how does it affect people?

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by one of the four dengue virus serotypes. It is primarily transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and to a lesser extent the Aedes albopictus mosquito, mainly in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world.

Infection with one serotype provides long-term immunity to that particular serotype, but not the others. That means that, after recovery, a person can still be infected by the other three serotypes. Serotypes are groups within a single species of microorganisms, such as bacteria or viruses, which share distinctive surface structures.

Most infections produce only mild flu-like illness; 80% of cases are asymptomatic. But getting infected with different serotypes one after the other puts a person at a greater risk of severe dengue, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. It is characterised by serious internal bleeding and organ damage, and a sudden drop in blood pressure that causes shock which can be fatal.

How widespread is it in the Sahel? Why is this first outbreak in Chad significant?

Dengue fever has been endemic in Sudan, with outbreaks documented in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019. Unfortunately, due to years of political and civil conflicts, the control and response capacity of the public health sector in Sudan has been limited.

The risk of spread in the Sahel region, which includes Niger, Mali and Chad, has always been high. This is because these countries all host the suitable mosquito vectors (Aedes). They also share the same tropical climate with seasonal heavy rains and floods.

To add to the problem, countries like Chad are grappling with a massive influx of refugees and returnees from Sudan who might be carrying the disease. The epicentre of the current outbreak, the province of Ouaddai at the eastern border with Sudan, hosts more than 400,000 refugees.

The cities at the border with Sudan are densely populated and have poor sanitation. This provides a favourable environment for the vectors to breed.

In addition, Chad lacks effective disease control programmes. This is its first dengue outbreak. It doesn’t have the necessary public health preparedness and response capacities. So the risk posed by this outbreak is high.

The movement of the returning refugees has the potential to spread the outbreak in Chad and even across the border to other countries in the Sahel, the rest of Africa, and the world at large.

What treatment is available?

There’s currently no available treatment for dengue in the world. Timely detection and case management, especially treatment of dehydration and plasma leakage by oral or intravenous rehydration, are key in preventing severe illness and death.

There is an approved dengue vaccine (Dengvaxia) for use in people aged 9-45 years. But for it to be effective they must have had one infection of dengue by any of the four serotype viruses, which must be confirmed by a laboratory test.

The vaccine is given in three doses within 12 months and protects against all the four dengue virus serotypes with an efficacy of 80%. However, its availability in developing countries in Africa isn’t assured, although it has been licensed by several national regulatory authorities.

Apart from the vaccine, the only other guard against dengue fever is prevention of mosquito bites and vector control.

What is the way forward in controlling the disease?

More investment should be put on expanding clinical and laboratory capabilities to deal with the disease. 

Given that this is Chad’s first outbreak, it needs to:

• put in place standard operating procedures for clinical management of suspected and confirmed dengue cases

• expand the capacity for early detection of cases – this could be done by procurement of rapid diagnostic tests and by alerting communities

• strengthen disease surveillance and coordinate the response by actively finding cases. Cases within the community are likely to be underreported as dengue is unknown to the public. Also, clinicians might not be familiar with the disease presentation. It could be confused with other common fevers.

• put in place effective vector control measures, like draining stagnant water around residential areas, cleaning and replenishing water storage containers on a weekly basis, distributing insecticide-treated nets, spraying indoors and using window and door screens.

• strengthen surveillance to assess the vector breeding potential in containers and to monitor insecticide resistance. This is critical for selecting the most effective insecticides.

• make communities aware of the risks of infection and how to protect themselves. Engaged communities can take ownership of the vector control strategy and adopt healthy behaviours.

• strengthen cross-border collaboration. The current outbreak most likely spread from Sudan. The focus should be on prevention and vector control measures in border areas.

• mobilise resources for a national contingency plan for dengue preparedness and response. And seek help from experienced organisations like the WHO.

View original: https://www.econotimes.com/Chads-first-dengue-fever-outbreak-what-you-should-know-1665123

*About Author: Eunice Anyango Owino
Dr. Eunice Anyango Owino is a Medical Entomologist based at the School of Biological Sciences, the University of Nairobi, specialising on arthropod borne diseases. 
Medical Entomologist at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi 
Source: https://www.econotimes.com/contributors/17080

[Ends] 

Sudan: Violence in Darfur forces thousands to flee

Photo: A staff member with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, talks to Sudanese people who have just arrived in Adre, Chad, as refugees.   © UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Violence in Sudan’s Darfur forces thousands to flee

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. 28 January 2020 |  Español  |  Français  |  عربي

Clashes in El Geneina, in Sudan’s West Darfur State, have forced more than 11,000 people to flee as refugees into neighbouring Chad since last month. Four thousand of them have fled during last week alone and it is estimated that the clashes have displaced some 46,000 inside the country.

Most of them were already internally displaced people and when attacks happened in West Darfur in late December 2019, including on displacement camps, people fled and found temporary refuge in schools, mosques and other buildings in El Geneina.

With El Geneina only 20 kilometers from the border, thousands of refugees crossed into Chad, a number UNHCR anticipates could reach 30,000 in the coming weeks as tensions persist. UNHCR teams on the ground are hearing accounts of people fleeing after their villages, houses and properties were attacked, many burnt to the ground.

In Chad, the refugees are currently scattered in several villages along a line that spans nearly 100 kilometers near the border, around the town of Adré, in the province of Ouaddaï which already hosts 128,000 Sudanese refugees. The conditions are dire. Most are staying in the open or under makeshift shelters, with little protection from the elements. Food and water are urgently needed, while health conditions are a concern.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, its Government counterpart and humanitarian partners are on the ground and coordinating the response to this emergency, registering refugees and providing lifesaving aid including food, water, relief items. Refugees needing special care, including unaccompanied children, are being identified and assisted.

However, the rate of refugee arrivals risks outpacing our capacity. More resources and support will be required to bolster the response.

Together with the Chadian government, UNHCR is in the process of identifying a new site further from the border, where the refugees can be relocated and receive the security and assistance they desperately need.

Meanwhile in West Darfur, UNHCR and other humanitarian actors are also rushing relief items such as blankets, sleeping mats and jerry cans to assist displaced men, women and children at over three dozen gathering points. In the past week, trucks with additional relief items arrived from UNHCR’s warehouses in other Darfur states, with more aid on the way.

UNHCR continues to seek international community’s support for the transitional government of Sudan in addressing the root causes of the conflict in Darfur. Restoring security will be key for peacebuilding. This will also allow much needed development assistance to support sustainable solutions, including the return of Sudanese displaced inside the country and living as refugees, once conditions are conducive.

For more information on this topic, please contact:

• In Chad, Simplice Kpandji, kpandji@unhcr.org, +235 68 59 30 60
• In Khartoum, Roland Schönbauer, schoenb@unhcr.org, +249 912 179 387
• In Geneva, Babar Baloch, baloch@unhcr.org, +41 79 513 9549

View Original: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2020/1/5e2ff3bd4/violence-sudans-darfur-forces-thousands-flee.html