The line between life and death - Escaping Darfur Chaos

In January 2026, I traveled along the border between Chad and Sudan, where more than 30, 000 people from Darfur had fled one of the worst massacres of the 21st century, carried out by the Rapid Support Forces militia in the city of El Fasher on October 26, 2025.

After more that 500 days under siege, General Hemedti's militias entered the city of El Fasher, killing, raping, and looting everything in their path. Satellite images showing pools of blood visible from space shocked the world. According to an estimate by the humanitarian research lab at Yale University, based on satellite image analysis, as many as 60, 000 people may have been killed over just a few days. Since then, a constant flow of Sudanese refugees has continued to reach the Chadian border, which has become a lifeline for more than 900, 000 Sudanese since the war began on April 15, 2023.

In the refugee camp of Oure Cassoni and in the border town of Tine, where many survivors from El Fasher arrived, almost no one was spared from the violence committed during the takeover of the city. Women were especially targeted. Between January 2024 and November 2025, at least 3, 396 survivors of sexual violence — 97% of them women and girls — received care in facilities supported by Médecins Sans Frontières in North and South Darfur. According to the organization, the real number is likely much higher.

Since this tragedy, the war in Darfur has not stopped. Rapid Support Forces fighters, many of them from Arab communities in Darfur and Chad, continue to spread fear among non-Arab communities. Villages are still being burned in the last areas resisting their control. Even after reaching safety in Chad, refugees face extremely difficult living conditions. In Oure Cassoni, 12, 000 people were still sleeping under trees at the end of January 2026, with little food and very limited access to water.

For some families, this exile has already lasted more than twenty years, since the genocide of 2003. Entire generations have grown up in these camps without any real future. Today, history is repeating itself, and a new generation is once again being forced onto the roads of exile.