The government of Chad, where tens of thousands of refugees have arrived who fled to escape the war in Sudan, yesterday Saturday asked for “help” from the international community, which it criticized for having left it “almost alone” in the midst of a humanitarian crisis “without previous”.

“The mobilization of the international community (…) has not reached the level of that for other regions, it has left Chad to receive refugees almost alone, depleting its own resources,” Chad’s Prime Minister Challet Kembabo said emphatically, addressing representatives of international organizations.

Already at the beginning of June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sounded the alarm, stressing that more than 100,000 Sudanese citizens, mainly women and children from Darfur, crossed the border into eastern Chad during a month and a half of hostilities. .

And they added to the 680,000-plus already present in this partly desert-covered country in central Africa, 60% of whom (or about 409,000) are Sudanese.

The High Commission also stated that the financial needs to offer them help had not been covered by the international community by more than 16%.

“Chad is asking for support and massive technical and financial assistance from countries and organizations” and for an “international summit (…) to raise funds” to deal with the “unprecedented refugee crisis”, Mr. Kembabo emphasized.

Chad and Sudan share a porous border totaling 1,500 kilometers, part of which lies in the desert.