Tensions bubble as Sudanese refugees feel resentment from Chadian hosts
Al Jazeera
Some 600,000 Sudanese are seeking safety in Chad, but host communities are blaming them for using up scarce resources.
Metche, Chad – A group of village elders huddle in the sparse shade of a tree to discuss the influx of Sudanese refugees that threatens to overwhelm them. They are worried.
This is Metche, Chad, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur, where a refugee camp has sprung up and thousands of people have sought safety.
The camp sprawls near the village – makeshift shelters of straw, cloth, tree branches and tarps separated by narrow, crowded tracks where cattle and motorbikes jostle with people on foot.
About 600,000 people have fled violence and famine to seek refuge in Chad since the Sudanese civil war broke out in April 2023, but their presence has fanned tensions as local resentment builds.
Many were relocated to six refugee camps, including the one near Metche, in areas where a few thousand rural Chadian farmers and pastoralists live.
