Adré Children’s Feeding Program and Clinic Update - November 2024
Program Background
Shortly after war began in Sudan in April 2023, Darfur became ground zero for some of the worst atrocities committed in modern history. The national army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) battle against each other for control of Sudan morphed into the largely Arab RSF launching a hate-driven assault on Darfur’s historic ethnic African groups, such as the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit.
Map by Operation Broken Silence.
Between April and June of 2023 alone, the RSF and their allied Arab militias committed a highly organized genocide of up to 15,000 Masalit people in El Geneina, West Darfur. The brutal paramilitary force followed up this extermination with a shock offensive across Darfur in October, seizing all but one state capital and driving most army forces out of the region.
One of our private Sudanese partners assisted persecuted ethnic groups fleeing RSF war crimes during this period. They helped nearly 2,000 refugees escape the Central, South, and East provinces and cross into South Sudan. This lifesaving work ended in November 2023 when the RSF completed its occupation of most all of Darfur. We are proud of the brave team who worked around the clock at great personal risk to help some of the most vulnerable escape.
Since then, several areas of Darfur have descended into famine. Refugees coming into Chad —often with dangerously thin arms and thousand-yard stares— bring stories of witnessing extreme violence and loved ones dying of starvation. Darfur under RSF occupation has become a human rights and humanitarian nightmare. The ethnic cleansing of historic African tribes is ongoing. Rape and sexual violence are widespread. Unhinged RSF units are running out of markets, banks, farms, and storehouses to plunder.
Operation Broken Silence is now helping to provide emergency food and medical support for some of the most at-risk Darfur displaced and refugee communities. We are supporting key indigenous leaders in two areas:
Adré Refugee Camps in eastern Chad
Zamzam Displacement Camp near El Fasher, North Darfur.
We have some important updates from our partners in Adré below, as well as a brief overview of current conditions in the camps.
An Update From Dr. Douda
Many survivors of the Darfur genocide have made their way into Chad, the country which neighbors the western Darfur region (see our map, above). Sudanese doctor Abdelillah Douda, who is helping to oversee a small clinic and children’s feeding program in Adré, visited both at the end of October. Here is his report:
Much darkness and misery is experienced by Sudanese refugees who have fled into eastern Chad, especially in the huge Al-Malik camp adjacent to Adré. But refugees began helping their friends and families after the trouble and hardship of fleeing the hell of war in Darfur. This was the spark that lit the way for the magnificent work now being doing the For You children’s feeding center and clinic in Adré.
Photo: At the children’s feeding center in Adré.
Due to the poor healthcare in the camp, which is inhabited by a quarter of a million people —mostly women and children— a group of doctors, nurses, workers and administrators from Darfur have established a small clinic to provide medical services to the most needy. With modest financial assistance, these people were able to do a qualitative humanitarian work in the field of providing physical and psychological treatment to residents. In a short period of time, the clinic has become a treasured destination for patients due to the distinguished services it provides and the good treatment that patients receive from its volunteer workers.
To tell you the truth, when I visited this camp between October 26-31, 2024, we were amazed by this work. Coupled to the feeding center the clinic is fast becoming a small hospital. It consists of two rooms for administrators, two clinics for examination, a clinic for a specialist, a fully integrated examination laboratory, an ultrasound room, temporary wards for holding patients for a short period, a small mental health department, and a large pharmacy to provide free medicine to patients. 35 individuals now work here, including doctors, nurses, and other medical workers. They receive between 150-200 patients daily, and the feeding center receives between 600-700 children for breakfast every day. The clinic staff work from 7AM-5PM.
We met many patients during this visit, and they expressed their gratitude and thanks to everyone who contributed and worked to establish and maintain the clinic and feeding center. They wished that such work would be generalized in all the camps in eastern Chad. Some of the chronically ill patients who are being treated told me that if it weren’t for the children’s feeding center and clinic, many would have died from a lack of treatment.
Current conditions in the Adré camps
As of mid-November, an abysmal 29% of the $630.2 million the United Nations needs for Sudanese refugees in Chad in 2024 has been funded, and the year is almost over. This means that the international humanitarian response in the Adré camps continues to be severely limited, making the clinic and feeding center all the more important.
Well over 700,000 refugees have now fled into eastern Chad. The country has received more Sudanese this year than the previous 20 years combined. It’s estimated roughly 250,000 of the refugees are in the Adré area. While it is much safer here than RSF-controlled areas of Darfur, many of the refugees understandably feel vulnerable. RSF fighters are periodically spotted in eastern Chad, and some refugees have reported receiving death threats from the paramilitaries. Adré sits just a few miles inside Chad’s porous border with Sudan and, while the Chadian government has troops forward-deployed to provide protection, RSF fighters can still easily slip into the country.
Hunger is common in Adré, as are preventable diseases due to the lack of adequate clean water, latrines, and medicines. With the area now overwhelmed and tensions running high, authorities in Chad are pre-registering newly arriving Sudanese refugees at the border and relocating them to Dougui, which is further west. Recent air strikes in El Fasher, North Darfur and extreme famine and targeted RSF violence in West Darfur are still pushing more refugees into Chad, usually with intense medical and nutritional needs.
The clinic and feeding program need at least $8,500 per month to operate at current levels, and they can expand these services to meet more needs when more funding becomes available. Please consider joining us in helping these brave heroes serve their persecuted people.
Photo: Work at the clinic in Adré.
These heroes need your help
These refugee leaders are a small bulwark against spreading famine and disease. With the international community doing so little to fight this crisis, directly funding their efforts are all the more critical to fend off the most dire outcomes. Your one-time or monthly gift can save lives today and help them prepare for what lies ahead.
$8,500: fully fund the clinic and feeding program for an entire month!
$4,000: cover the children's feeding program for one month
$1,000: provide one week of all basic medicines needed
$500: feed 500 hungry children for one week
$250: help expand the children's feed program
$100: deliver nutritional supplements that help fight malnutrition
$50: deliver anti-malarial, typhus and other speciality medications
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Make checks payable to Operation Broken Silence with Adré in the memo line and mail to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
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Adré was once a quiet town perched on the border between Chad and Sudan. It is now the main hub for people escaping a genocide and famine that has given way to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/adre-childrens-feeding-program-and-clinic-update-november-2024
It’s not in the news, but the world’s largest humanitarian emergency is unfolding in Sudan. Learn more and help: https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/adre-childrens-feeding-program-and-clinic-update-november-2024
The international humanitarian response in the Sudanese refugee camps at Adré continues to be severely underfunded, making this special clinic and feeding center all the more important. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/adre-childrens-feeding-program-and-clinic-update-november-2024
Well over 700,000 refugees have now fled into eastern Chad. The country has received more Sudanese this year than the previous 20 years combined. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/adre-childrens-feeding-program-and-clinic-update-november-2024
