The French Minister of Foreign Affairs is in Chad: this is Jean-Noël Barrot’s first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since he took office in September. This Thursday morning, the minister was in the east of the country, on the border with neighboring Sudan in the grip of war, in the Adré refugee camp, where he announced additional aid of 7 million euros, because the situation there is catastrophic.
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With our special correspondent to Adré, Alexandra Brangeon
In Adré, an average of 150 to 200 people cross the border every day since Sudan to enter Chad. The Adré camp hosts around 240,000 refugees. That’s more than a million refugees if we take the fifteen camps located all along the Chadian border. Refugees who need everything: food, water but also care, on the Chadian side.
Added to this are the Sudanese remaining in Sudan who also need aid: aid which is slow to be put in place.
This Thursday morning, a convoy of around ten vehicles left for different places in Darfur, in western Sudan, and in particular the enormous Zamzam camp which is located near el-Fasher, a town under siege for months by the FSR.
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The aid is arriving in dribs and drabs, the volumes are not sufficient, indicated this morning Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, who accompanied the head of French diplomacy.
And then, beyond the humanitarian crisis, we must also address the cause, underlined this morning the Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abderaman Koulamallah, who was also part of the visit. We must put pressure on the two belligerents to obtain a ceasefire, reiterated the two Chadian and French ministers.
Also readIn Chad, the head of French diplomacy visits the Adré refugee camp
Jean-Noël Barrot who in fact calls on the belligerents to cease hostilities, but also invites “ foreign powers allied to them to stop adding fuel to the fire “. The Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, at his side, affirmed that Ndjamena kept “ its strict neutrality in the conflict “.
Since April 15, 2023, Sudan has been torn by a war opposing the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), paramilitaries commanded by General Mohamed Hamdane Dogolo known as Hemedti.