Chad: A Nation in Conflict & Fragility

Chad: A Nation in Conflict and Fragility

Chad remains one of the most desperate places I’ve ever worked. From 2003 to 2008, while international headlines focused on Darfur, eastern Chad endured its own brutal war—one that blurred borders and complicated allegiances. The country became a quiet proxy battlefield, with Chad and Sudan backing rival rebel groups and unleashing Janjawid militias on villages that had little to do with either government’s agenda.

What followed was devastation. Villages torched. Civilians hunted. Entire communities erased. Refugee camps sprang up across the east like dust-blown cities—temporary, but lasting far too long. These weren’t just war zones; they were places where systems had completely broken down. Where women gave birth without trained care. Where girls were married before they could finish childhood. Where hope, for many, felt impossible.

Chad’s story is one of displacement layered on top of desperation. Even as the violence cooled, the instability didn’t. Banditry, food insecurity, and a lack of basic infrastructure continue to define the region. Many families I met had fled violence more than once. Generations raised in tents. Futures paused indefinitely.

What stayed with me most weren’t just the statistics or the silence from the international community—it was the resilience. The mothers who fought to get their children to a clinic hours away. The girls who studied at night, even inside a refugee camp. The elders who shared tea and stories even after losing everything.

Woman with dark skin wearing colorful traditional dress and pink headscarf sitting on bed with sleeping baby wrapped in a rainbow shower towel.
A group of men wearing traditional white turbans and robes sitting on a colorful rug in a mud-walled room, attending a presentation by a man standing next to a whiteboard, with sunlight coming through open windows.
A woman standing in the doorway of a blue corrugated metal building with a sign that reads 'Centre de Dépistage Volontaire C.D.V.' outdoors during daytime.
A dimly lit hospital room with two beds, one with a patient and the other with a distressed person sitting beside it. The room has two windows and a door, with electrical outlets and medical equipment on the walls.
A woman with dark skin wearing a purple headscarf, a pink and white checkered dress, and a gold watch, standing in front of a pink wall.
A woman lying in a hospital bed with an IV in her hand, surrounded by three newborn babies on a mattress, all wearing colorful patterned clothing.
A person lying on a bed on their back with a turquoise wall in the background, wearing a white shirt and patterned pants, looking at the camera, with their left arm resting on their chest and their right arm raised with a clenched fist.
A group of women and children sitting on the floor and on benches inside a small, pink-walled room, watching television. The women are dressed in colorful scarves and traditional clothing.
Women attending to newborns in a maternity ward with blue mosquito netting hanging from the ceiling and hospital beds.
Medical team performing surgery on a patient in an operating room
A woman lying on a hospital bed with her shirt lifted, receiving a prenatal exam from a healthcare professional in a tiled medical room.
View from inside a vehicle looking out at a dirt bridge over a river, with pedestrians and bicycles walking along the bridge on a sunny day with blue sky and scattered clouds.
A young child sleeps peacefully inside a makeshift bed, wrapped in colorful clothing, with a protective face mask pulled under the chin, amidst a background of a wire mesh screen and netting.
A woman in a pink headscarf and traditional clothing sitting behind orange bars in a meeting or waiting area with green slatted walls and two other women in the background.
Aerial view of a densely populated desert village with numerous small, earth-colored buildings and makeshift roofs, connected by sandy pathways.
A group of people standing in formation on a dusty field with several parked vehicles in the background, and a woman in traditional attire standing apart, facing them.
View from inside a vehicle showing a dirt road in a grassy landscape with several SUVs and a pickup truck carrying people, some holding rifles.
An elderly man dressed in traditional white attire and turban, sitting on a patterned mat with notebooks open in front of him, surrounded by other men in similar attire, in an indoor setting with warm lighting.
Silhouette of a person diving into a river at sunset, with a tree-covered hill in the background.
Group of women and children gathered around a water pump in a rural area, some fetching water and others waiting nearby, with makeshift shelters in the background.
A dirt road in a refugee camp with makeshift tents and shelters, people and children walking, a person carrying a container on their head, and a donkey on the left side against the backdrop of trees and a bright sky.