In Tiné, in Chad’s Wadi Fira province, aid workers watched the numbers climb within a matter of days. Until mid-September 2026, about twenty Sudanese arrived at this border crossing each day. Between 15 and 20 September, the figure rose to between 200 and 400. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) describes a pace twenty times higher than the average of previous months. By 20 September, the Tiné transit centre was already sheltering more than 4,300 people, far beyond what it can handle.
Nearly everyone who arrives tells a similar story. In Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile, the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces is now in its fourth year. Air strikes and drone attacks are becoming more frequent. Livestock losses and a drought that has left villages without water make things worse. Drone strikes have even been reported on the Chadian side, in Wadi Fira and Ennedi-Est. Women and children make up 84% of the new arrivals.
This is not Chad’s first wave. Since the conflict began in April 2023, almost one million Sudanese have sought refuge there, more than 55,000 of them since January 2026. Counting refugees who settled before the war, the country now hosts over 1.4 million. Adré, in Ouaddaï province, remains the main point of entry, but the relocation camps at Ouré Cassoni, Arkoum and Métché are struggling to keep up. More than 190,000 people are still waiting near the border, in precarious conditions, to be moved to a safer site.
That is where the system is breaking down. Of the $1.6 billion requested for the 2026 regional response, only 18% has been received. Chad’s share is in even worse shape, with about $83 million received out of $568 million requested, or 15%. In border areas, each refugee has an average of 11.5 litres of water a day, below the recommended minimum. Some 31,000 families lack adequate shelter. « It means less food. It means less capacity for people to be relocated to safer areas, » said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan situation.
The agency is raising another alarm too. If refugees fail to find safety and support in Chad, some may take to the road again, heading for Libya and then Europe. For N’Djamena and its partners, the equation is now simple and harsh. As long as the fighting in Sudan goes on, people will keep coming. Without fresh funding, the transit centres of eastern Chad will remain overcrowded waiting rooms on the edge of the desert