The family of Miriam Adam Idriss, arrive at the Sudanese border in Adre, Chad, after fleeing Sudan.
Miriam fled El Geneina in Dafur, on 4 November 2024, with her four daughters and many grandchildren, in search of safety in Chad, after enduring the horrors of the war in Sudan. Seven men from her family were killed, her home was looted and her animals were killed. Food was increasingly scarce and famine loomed. The children in her family had been out of school since the conflict started in April 2023.
“Today, I’m very happy for my family to be safe in Chad, and for the children to go back to school,” Miriam says. “I don’t think I will ever go back to Sudan.” ; Adre, in eastern Chad, used to be a small border town of 40,000 people but now hosts a sprawling spontaneous site for more than 230,000 newly arrived refugees who have fled the conflict in Sudan. While there are dozens of border crossing points along the Chad-Sudan border, Adre has become a focal point in the emergency, with the majority of the more than 700,000 refugees from Sudan having crossed there. In October 2024, the rate of new arrivals to Chad spiked due to escalating violence in Sudan, reaching almost 2,000 each day – levels not seen since the early months of the emergency.
In Adre, new arrivals are immediately received by UNHCR and partners so they can receive life-saving emergency assistance. Refugees then live in makeshift shelters while waiting to be relocated away from the border. UNHCR and partners have expanded 10 existing sites and have built six new ones since the start of the emergency, allowing for the relocation of more than 330,000 people. More resources are needed to construct further settlements with shelters, water infrastructure, health centres and schools, to relocate the remaining refugees from spontaneous sites like Adre to more suitable conditions.
ACNUR, la Agencia de la ONU para los Refugiados, declaró 26 nuevas emergencias en 2024, siete de ellas de máxima gravedad, según revela su Informe de Impacto anual. La organización atendió un total de 43 crisis, incluyendo 17 que continuaban desde 2023, desplegando personal y recursos en 130 países.
«ACNUR se despliega rápidamente donde más se nos necesite, por tierra, mar y aire», declaró Ayaki Ito, Director de la División de Emergencia, quien destaca la importancia de las nuevas tecnologías y sistemas de alerta temprana para mejorar la asistencia humanitaria.
La agencia atendió nueve emergencias por desastres climáticos en África, Asia y América Latina, un récord histórico que representa un tercio de las nuevas crisis. Estos fenómenos agravaron la situación en zonas que ya albergaban refugiados, causando brotes de enfermedades y destruyendo infraestructuras críticas. La organización distribuyó 5,1 millones de artículos de ayuda humanitaria valorados en 45,8 millones de dólares, beneficiando a 6 millones de personas, y formó a 240 empleados para respuesta inmediata.
