In Ouaddaï region, where we were already working, our teams quickly scaled up activities to assist people displaced by the violence. We provided healthcare in several locations, including Adré, Goungour and Koufroun, and carried out measles vaccination campaigns with the Ministry of Health.

In June, more than 850 Sudanese with war wounds, mainly from bullets, were received in Adré hospital in just three days – one of the largest influxes of wounded patients that MSF has ever had to manage. As the surgical unit was overwhelmed, we quickly erected an inflatable 200-bed hospital.

In the same month, hundreds of thousands of people previously trapped in Sudan’s West Darfur state started to arrive in eastern Chad. This dramatically increased needs in all areas: healthcare, shelter, food, water and sanitation, in places where resources were already scarce. In response, we opened a clinic in Adré transit camp and expanded our emergency response in paediatrics, women’s health, emergency medicine, mental health support, and treatment for malnutrition and for victims of sexual violence in Adré and in the newly built camps in Arkoum, Ourang and Metché.

We supported the health centre and opened two health posts in Arkoum, and built a field hospital in Ourang. In Metché, we started to build another inpatient facility towards the end of the year. Our teams also distributed water and built latrines in all these sites.

Aside from our emergency assistance to refugees, another of our priorities in Chad in 2023 was to support vaccination campaigns and improve the routine vaccination programme. In January, in collaboration with the health authorities, we vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children against measles in an effort to curb the epidemic in the capital, N’Djamena. We also provided vaccinations in 15 nomad camps in the city, and further south, in Tandjile and Moyenne Chari regions. Following intercommunal clashes in Logone Oriental region, we supported health facilities to treat the wounded, and referred patients requiring surgical care to Moundou hospital.  

We continued to partner with the Ministry of Health to improve access to paediatric, obstetric and maternal healthcare in Moissala, as well as services for children, including treatment for malnutrition, in Massakory and N’Djamena. We have also helped to upgrade facilities in the capital, by setting up a blood bank in Toukra hospital and constructing a new emergency room at Gozator hospital, after the previous one was destroyed in a fire.

In addition, MSF is working to develop community-based healthcare to prevent and treat malaria and other common diseases, training staff, and supporting health centres and local health programmes in Massakory, Moissala and Sila.