Nineteen months since conflict erupted between rival militaries the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the transfer of power to civilian rule, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern that more than three million people have now been forced to flee the country in search of safety.

“It's been over a year and a half of unimaginable suffering, brutal atrocities and widespread human rights violations,” said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR Director of External Relations. “Every day of every minute, thousands of lives are shattered by war and violence away from the world's attention.”

Speaking in Geneva after visiting displaced communities sheltering in neighbouring Chad, Ms. Hyde described Chad as “a sanctuary, a lifeline” for 700,000 war refugees.

Unimaginable testimony

“I spoke to people who watched while their families were murdered,” she said. “People are targeted on the basis of their ethnicity. Men and boys are killed and their bodies are burned. Women raped while fleeing. People told me over and over again how they remember the bodies they saw abandoned by the road as they were fleeing.”

The UNHCR official explained that in the face of massive needs, the UN agency and partners had relocated more than 370,000 refugees in Chad “to six new-build settlements and 10 extensions of pre-existing settlements, all completed in record time. But tens of thousands of families are still waiting for that opportunity to start over”.

Forgotten emergency

The exodus from Sudan has put pressure on surrounding countries to provide assistance to all those in need of shelter and basic services.

“Other countries neighbouring Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Central African Republic have gone above and beyond their means, not only providing safety for people to flee, but extending a chance to refugees to start rebuilding their lives while in exile,” the UNHCR official said.

“Continuing bloodshed” in Sudan’s Darfurs and across the country has created the world's worst civilian protection crisis in decades, but “the world is not paying any attention”, Ms. Hyde insisted.

In October alone, some 60,000 Sudanese arrived in Chad following an escalation of fighting in Darfur and as floodwaters receded.

The border town of Adre used to be home to 40,000 people, but it now hosts around 230,000 Sudanese refugees; many spend months in harsh conditions while waiting to be relocated inland.

“The exodus from Sudan continues, reaching levels not seen since the beginning of the crisis,” explained Ms. Hyde. “People are arriving in desperate conditions, carrying nothing but memories of unimaginable violence they witnessed and survived – things no one should have to endure.”

As UNHCR continues to register new arrivals in Chad, it reported that a full 71 per cent of suffered human rights violations in Sudan while fleeing.

Of 180 people who fled the Darfur city of El Geneina towards Chad, all but 17 were “massacred”, Ms. Hyde said, recounting the testimony of one young woman who escaped. “Of the 17 that survived, all of the women were raped…six of the women who survived the rape committed suicide.”

The $1.5 billion Refugee Response Plan for Sudan’s displaced which aims to assist 2.7 million people in five neighbouring countries is only 29 per cent funded. “Chad and its people…have been more than generous, more than welcoming,” Ms. Hyde said.

“I heard over and over again that they felt one with the Sudanese community. But we need that support. We need support now.”