Sudan: A regional crisis. How Concern is responding in Chad.

In 2025, to the end of October, Concern supported nearly 500,000 people in Sudan through a range of donors including Irish Aid, the European Union, U.S. Department of State, and the World Food Programme.

Since conflict broke out in April 2023, nearly 12 million Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes. Of those, nearly four million have fled to a neighbouring country. Nearly 900,000 Sudanese refugees have entered Chad since 2023, placing strain on a country already struggling with a lack of basic services and extreme poverty. Every neighbouring country of Chad has experienced conflict in the last ten years. With refugees travelling in different directions, swapping one crisis for another; the borders are busy. 

When families flee violence, they may not have the time, or the vehicle, to take their belongings. They arrive to barren camps, often on foot, with only the clothes they are wearing, and without the means to meet their basic needs. Their survival hangs in the balance. 

Concern has provided basic shelter and essential household items, health care, clean drinking water and education to over 140,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad.

To contribute to peaceful co-existence, Concern is also supporting the border communities now hosting refugees. The RESPECCT programme - funded by the European Union, the French Development Agency (AFD), and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) - supports host communities as well as refugees in a holistic way, providing essential services and helping to rebuild livelihoods. 

Khatir is Sudanese but was displaced to Sira, a border village in Chad, with her Chadian husband over ten years ago. They have since divorced. She is solely responsible for their three young children. The village supported her with a plot of land, and some food during harvest time which, along with day labouring in other people’s fields, enabled her to feed her children. As a vulnerable household, she was registered with the RESPECCT programme and received cash assistance; “The cash has allowed me to supplement our food, care for my children, and meet several essential needs.”

She also joined her local village savings and loan association (VSLA), established by the programme. In a VSLA, neighbours commit savings to a mutual fund and invest in each other’s small businesses through issuing small loans.

“Being part of the savings and credit group (VSLA) allows me to save and borrow, when necessary,” says Khatir. “When I receive the next loan, I plan to start a small business to support my farming activities, which are currently facing many difficulties because my field is located on slightly higher ground; when there is less rain, the harvests are often poor.”

Through the RESPECCT programme, Concern, the European Union, AFD and SDC have provided over €3 million in cash to 9,000 households, giving people the opportunity to buy what they most need in local markets.  The programme has also invested €1 million in more than 5,000 small businesses, contributing to resilience in communities that have long struggled with extreme poverty. The programme also provides peacebuilding activities to host families and refugee families (some who have been in Chad for many years, as a result of earlier crises), which help to reduce tension in the area and build resilient, cohesive communities.