The figures matter because they describe a displacement crisis that has settled into a long emergency.
More than 980,000 Sudanese nationals have fled to Chad since the armed conflict in Sudan began in April 2023, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as reported by TASS. The agency said that 980,399 Sudanese refugees had arrived in Chad between April 2023 and 15 October 2026. Over the same period, 404,256 Chadian nationals returned home from Sudan.
The combined flows are placing growing pressure on resources, basic services and the humanitarian response in eastern Chad, OCHA said. The agency described the humanitarian situation in the region as alarming, citing precarious access to water and healthcare. It also warned of agroclimatic risks affecting both the new arrivals and local residents, and noted that inadequate infrastructure and limited social service capacity make it harder for people to reach essential services.
Food security is the sharpest concern. According to OCHA, more than 668,000 people have experienced acute food insecurity in recent months, and the agency warned the situation could worsen without emergency assistance, particularly given an unfavourable outlook for the 2026-2027 agricultural and livestock season.
The figures matter because they describe a displacement crisis that has settled into a long emergency. Chad is among the poorest countries in the world, and eastern Chad in particular has absorbed successive arrivals across more than three years of war. The return of Chadians from Sudan adds a second, less visible strain: people coming back to communities that are themselves under pressure, rather than to host arrangements designed for refugees. OCHA's warning about infrastructure and service capacity speaks to that overlap.
The wider context, as the UN has described it, is a war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces that has killed tens of thousands of people and forced around 14 million to flee their homes. The Chad figures represent a fraction of that total, but they concentrate the burden on one border region.
What the report does not establish is how funding for the response compares with need, whether the 668,000 figure refers to eastern Chad alone or to a wider area, and what specific agroclimatic risks the agency has in mind. Nor does it offer projections for arrivals beyond mid-October 2026. Those gaps matter for anyone assessing whether the response can hold through the coming agricultural season.
