Families of Sudanese Refugees Held in Chad Voice Anxiety Over Secret Detentions

20 June 2026

Hadjie Al Nour Sar (left) with her daughter Fatima at the Aboutengue refugee camp in eastern Chad. UNHCR photo

June 19, 2026 (ADRE, Chad) – Dozens of Sudanese families have expressed deep anxiety over the fate of more than 40 young Sudanese men detained by Chadian authorities since May without charge or access to communication.

Eastern Chad hosts hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the conflict in Darfur since April 2023, particularly after the fall of El Geneina in West Darfur. Most live in border camps under difficult humanitarian conditions.

One displaced family, who fled El Geneina in 2023, told Sudan Tribune that Chadian authorities arrested their son in May without disclosing any allegations or charges.

The family said they have been unable to contact him, locate his place of detention, or verify his health status. They maintained that the detainees were war victims with no links to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, suggesting the arrests were malicious.

Most of the detained men are from West Darfur, particularly El Geneina, and were arrested under similar, unexplained circumstances, the family added. They demanded their immediate release or a clarification of the legal grounds for their detention.

Separately, the Sudanese Group for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms and the Darfur Bar Association called on Chadian authorities to disclose the reasons for the detention of six specific Sudanese men held since May 8.

The legal rights groups identified the six detainees as police captain Mohamed Al-Fatih Ishag Adam Hamid, police lieutenant Mubarak Dafallah, police assistants Al-Tom Yahya Arbab, Abdel Aziz Bashar Atim, and Ismail Abdallah Abdel Rahman, alongside sergeant Adam Ahmed Abdallah.

The statement noted that while reports had circulated regarding the brief detention of a Sudanese passport mission travelling from Port Sudan to Chad, the case of these six individuals had remained unpublicized despite prolonged isolation.

The organizations and families urged international human rights bodies and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to intervene, locate the detainees, and ensure their right to legal representation.