In the Goudrane refugee camp in eastern Chad, home to about 50,000 Sudanese refugees, water tanks had been dry for four days. When a water truck crested the ridge, hundreds sprinted across the burning sand toward the slowing vehicle. For many families, one filled jerrycan meant another day of survival.

Women at the front of the crowd fell first. Children clambered over them. Some sank to their knees, losing their grip on their jerrycans. Within 10 minutes, the crowd had surged around the truck until its 6,000 liters of water were gone. Rokhia Ibrahim, 43, a Sudanese schoolteacher, watched her dejected pupils walk away with empty buckets. “It was less than a year ago when I saw children like them die of thirst while escaping el-Fasher,” she said.

Al Jazeera interviewed dozens of Sudanese refugees, including Ibrahim, who fled horrific violence in Sudan. During her escape from el-Fasher, she said fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked her family. Her baby was pulled from her back and thrown to the ground. Her husband was kicked repeatedly in the head until he lost his sight. “I watched the soldiers pour out the little water we had onto the ground,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

According to the United Nations, more than 938,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to neighboring Chad since the war began in April 2023. Most now live in overcrowded camps across the country’s arid east, where some survive on less than half the minimum daily water supply recommended by UNHCR standards.

At the medical clinic in Goudrane camp, young mothers queue for treatment while the camp’s only doctor confronts a problem that medicine alone cannot solve. “We have medicine to deal with infections and bacterial problems, but without clean water, you can’t take it,” the doctor told Al Jazeera.

The French humanitarian organization Solidarites International has been operating in Chad since 2008, but says the water crisis unfolding in refugee camps in the east is among the most urgent emergencies it has faced. “We are doing everything we can to improve access to clean water, but current funding is not enough to ensure everyone has access to safe water,” said Thibault Henry, the country director.

As the war intensifies in Sudan, more refugees continue to arrive in Chad carrying physical and psychological scars. In the Adre transit camp, refugees described surviving brutal attacks by the RSF. Zahra Khamis survived rape, repeated attacks on her home, and nearly 50 days under drone attacks. She made it more than halfway to the border before her son was shot dead. Khamis is a member of the Masalit community, which UN investigators say has been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

Now in its fourth year, the war has spread across much of Sudan. International efforts to end the conflict have yielded little progress. “I lost my husband and my son to the war,” said Fatne Adam, 53. “Both were shot by snipers as we fled. One day I would like to return to Sudan, but only when there is peace again. Nobody can tell me when that will be.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com