Phone Communications: A Means of Reunion

Moatinoon

While the young Sudanese refugee in Chad, aged 29, continues her search for her younger brother after fleeing Sudan due to the war last June, Khadija has finally managed to locate her relatives. She reached out to them over the phone, reassuring herself of their well-being after a 4-month silence since her arrival in Chad.

Khadija, a Sudanese woman who uses an alias for security reasons and is 37 years old, explains, The situation in Khartoum was extremely turbulent to the point where I couldnt get any news about my family. I havent slept for four months. I finally managed to contact my younger brother, who is in Khartoum with my parents. He told me that my other brother managed to escape to Egypt. Im here with my son, and I can finally tell him that his father is fine.

Thanks to small free telephone communication centers established by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Chadian Red Cross in several Sudanese refugee camps in Chad, 558 Sudanese refugees have been able to reconnect with their families, according to a statement by the International Red Cross Committee in the Chadian capital, NDjamena, last Monday.

Red Cross teams have opened branches in camps such as Jabal, Zabut, and Adri in the Sila region, as well as camps Ghaga and Farchana in the Wadi region.

The International Committee highlighted that they managed to facilitate more than 1500 phone calls and successfully helped over a third of the callers find their relatives. This includes dozens of wounded individuals and patients in healthcare facilities in Adri, Abeshi, and NDjamena.

The committee reiterated its commitment to revealing the fate of missing persons to alleviate the suffering of their families living in a state of uncertainty.

A significant percentage of Sudanese refugees in Chad, numbering over 350,000, have been cut off from news of their family members. However, it noted that thousands of families have yet to receive any news about the fate of their missing relatives. The majority of displaced individuals in Chad are women and children who have not received any news about their husbands, sons, fathers, or brothers.

Red Cross teams have registered more than twenty unaccompanied minors in order to facilitate the search for their relatives.

Mr. Dan Rockiba, Head of Protection Activities carried out by the International Committee in Chad, said, Thanks to the efforts of the Red Cross teams, we have already managed to assist hundreds of families. However, the needs are immense, and we are sorely lacking the necessary resources to meet them. In cooperation with the Chadian Red Cross, we have already trained more than 30 volunteers to assist us in this search operation. New families arrive in Chad every day. Displaced individuals do not know whether their loved ones are still in Sudan, have fled, or have passed away. The uncertainty exacerbates the suffering of families already traumatized by the violence they have endured.

The committee emphasized that communications remain a major challenge in the current situation in Sudan, where communication methods are still unstable, complicating contact with Darfur. The financial resources of displaced families are limited, and floods resulting from the rainy season further hamper search efforts.