Chad faces growing Sudan refugee burden

0:00Hello there and welcome to Focus on Africa. I am in KCobun. The UN says around 50,000 people fleeing the war in Sudan have crossed into the eastern parts of Chad this year alone. We speak to the regional director of Eastern and Southern Africa at the UN Refugee Agency who has just concluded a visit to Chad. But I saw this time are people even more fragile, even more vulnerable because in addition to what they are fleeing, meaning the conflict, there is also additional vulnerabilities that you have inside Darfur now. It's also the impact of lack of water, lack of basic services, so the level of destitution is growing. And access to education for deaf children remains a challenge. What a local startup is attempting to use robots to make education more inclusive. We look at the initiative as the world

1:00marks the international day of signed languages. We have seen some of the organizations and schools maybe not many taking up and borrowing so much into AI and their robotics and how it will help when it comes to education is that incorporation of that in classes will be very helpful. It's Wednesday, September 23rd. More than three years into Sudan's war, people are still crossing the country's borders in search of safety. One of the countries receiving the largest numbers is Chad, which shares a long border with Sudan's Darfur region. The UN Refugee Agency says Chad is now hosting around 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers. And despite the war entering its fourth year, the flow of people has not stopped. This year alone, more than 50,000 Sudanese

2:06refugees have crossed into Chad according to UNHCR. Many are arriving in the eastern part of the country, where local communities and humanitarian agencies say they are already struggling with limited resources. Food, shelter, healthcare and access to clean water are among the major needs. At a time when humanitarian agencies say they do not have enough funding to support everyone who needs help. Momodoo Jan Baldi is UNHCR's regional director for eastern and southern Africa. He's just returned from a visit to eastern Chad where he met refugees, local authorities and humanitarian workers. Could you start by telling me more about this visit to Chad? Where did you visit and what did you see when you got there? I spent the past five days in eastern Chad at the border between Darfur Sudan and Chad. It's in Adre, it's in Farsana, it's in Abeshe.

3:14These are all localities that have been hosting Sudanese refugees, people who have crossed and fled the violence as well as horrific events that are happening inside Sudan and who've come and sold asylum. So six days with refugees, with host populations, with authorities, colleagues and partners who are providing support to sisters and brothers who have fled this brutal conflict. Chad is already hosting hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees as you have said, but from what you saw, how close are your authorities and host communities to reaching their limit? There is a normal pressure on Chad, a normal pressure on host population to have shared what they have and who keeps seeing people flee. I would say I'm always amazed, I'm always reconforted by seen communities who see pressure, who have pressure and who keep opening their borders. Since the beginning of this year,

4:18Chad has received over 55,000 refugees. Only this year, they are being added to 960,000 who have been there since 2023 and before 2023, there were 400,000. So all in all, Chad has been receiving about 1.5 million refugees and they keep opening their borders. So this is what they call generosity, this is what they call solidarity and my call is to the international community, two things and this is what refugees, host populations have been telling us, please stop the war in Sudan and in the meantime help us with support so that we can live dignified lives until such a time you can go back home. Now, Momod, you spoke to some of these refugees on the ground. What were they telling you? They are living conditions where and the experiences in some of these displacement communities and camps. I was here about a year and a half ago and by then,

5:20you could see people who have fled the violence, the rapes, the violations of humorized and the conflict in Sudan. What I saw this time are people even more fragile, even more vulnerable because in addition to what they are fleeing, meaning the conflict, there is also additional vulnerabilities that you have inside Darfur now. It's also the impact of lack of water, lack of basic services. So the level of destitution is growing and they need to be registered, they need to be transported, they need to be relocated and they need shelters so that we can provide them support until such a time. There is a peace and people can return home. When it comes to supplies, right? Like food, like medicine, shelter. How are these provided? Because you say in 2026 alone, over 55,000 refugees have arrived in Chad. How is funding and support for these refugees reaching them?

6:27Funding is reaching our sisters and brothers but it's not enough. You have people who keep coming. There are 34 partners whom UNHR, the refugee agency are coordinating. These are national NGOs, these are international NGOs, these are sister-unagents. In this refugee response, three years after the beginning of the brutal conflict, the support is around a 20-22%. Can you imagine if you only get about a fifth of the support that you are supposed to get, it means less food, longer time at the border areas, it means less access to water, like in Ure Kasani in the northern part of this border. But it also means risk of additional tensions with the host populations who have been sharing whatever they have. Right, Mama Do, I hear you when you call for support and a stop to the war. But what are the

7:31Chadian authorities doing to manage the situation? All in all, you've said they are over a million refugees currently in Chad. You see in Keshè, there are 1.5 million Sudanese refugees currently in eastern Chad. The authorities, the populations in Chad have opened their borders. They are providing them with security, safety. You see the women and her husband, that I saw two days ago in one of the refugee sites. They had lost two of their sons and they are there with a disabled daughter. They are there with their grandchildren who are now, who don't know where their fathers are. What they first told me was to say, at least in this part of the world, we are safe. We are safe, they are able to improve the shelter that they have been provided with.

8:36The first thing is that shelter, it's that safety that they have been getting and that's absolutely essential. This has been provided in partnership with the government and the people of Chad. What I think has been missing, and this is what they keep telling us, is they support that is required for the 34 partners who are responding to this crisis, which has lasted for far too long. Of this over 1.5 million refugees that are currently in the eastern part of Chad, what do you think from your assessment and the current situation on the ground? Do you think those numbers are going to increase over time or do you anticipate a reduction? I wish these numbers reduce. I wish we had less refugees coming into Chad, but sadly the realities that more are coming. You see the past two weeks, the changes on the battlefield

9:42in the quarterfans, we see more people crossing and my colleagues are worried because with this level of support, with this level of arrivals, we see less and less support. So sadly my teams, my colleagues, our partners have to be ready for more refugees to come. What is the danger of a Mammadu painter picture for us if we see more refugees arriving in Chad? You see, Chad has been generous. Chad is showing solidarity. The risk of more people coming and less support is that we will have less protection for people and chances of increase of instability. This is not something no one of us wish to see. It is about Chad, but it is also about other countries in the region that have been hosting a large number of Aida Sudanese refugees

10:44or in the case of South Sudan, for example, of South Sudanese returning in large numbers to their countries of origin. Mammadu just before I let you go, you spoke about the countries in the region that have repeatedly been urged to help bring an end to the war in Sudan. But beyond taking in refugees, what more do you want to see from Sudan's neighbors? Sudan's neighbors have been largely open in their borders. They've been receiving their refugees. They call that the Secretary General has made and he keeps making. They call also of the high commissioner for refugees is that everyone from neighboring countries, from countries in the region in the broader areas beyond the region is to put an end to this conflict. Each one of us to remember that this is a conflict that is affecting individual civilians. People have lost far too much for far too long and this needs to end. This is the call that

11:50each one of us have been making and it's also the call that refugees I meet have been meeting the past three years have been making. Many thanks to Mammadu Jan Baldi, UNHCR's regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa. This is focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. As the world marks the International Day of Sign Languages to D, attention is turning to the rights of deaf people to access information, communication and education. This year's global theme, Declaring Deaf People's Human Rights, places particular emphasis on ensuring that deaf people can fully participate in society through the recognition and use of national sign languages. It was established by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of sign languages in ensuring the human rights of deaf people

12:51worldwide. The World Health Organization says nearly 40 million people in Africa have disabling hearing laws. The number is projected to rise to 54 million by the year 2030. The day also highlights the role of sign languages in promoting inclusion, accessibility and equal opportunities, including the rights to quality education. In Kenya, where access to education for deaf children remains a challenge, a local startup is attempting to use robots to make education more inclusive. We heard from its co-founder Norekimathi in Nairobi. As the trainer is speaking, whatever he is speaking is being directly translated into sign language, so it's speech to sign and sign to speech. So the human and robots deployed in schools have a screen embedded on its chest, whereby the students can ask questions in sign language, provide feedback and it's channeled into voice to their teachers and.

13:57When we were starting off, we had a really difficult time because no one else had built this on the continent. So we had to start from scratch, we had to look for data online, we had to look which was actually nonexistent. So we actually did that when we decided, okay, let's actually build our own data, which we can open-source it in the future and just kind of lay that foundation. Norekimathi is the co-founder of Zero Bionic. Now to give us a deeper perspective into how sign languages can be integrated in everyday life and especially in education. I spoke with Diana Kamau, the founder and director of sign language in school, SLIC Hub. Let's start by understanding how serious is the issue of poor access to education by deaf children on the African continent. The challenge especially for the deaf child is very serious because my

15:02experience in the community and also in the area of sign language, I have observed and I have seen that there is a lot of ignorance when it comes to sign language and so the lack of communication for the deaf child starting from home all the way to school where now there is the education part of it becomes very challenging because of communication. When we come to the school setup and the equipping and the capacity of the teachers in school, you find that there's no much concentration into the learning of sign language. Let's talk about technology at this point. How can technology be used to address the barriers to education access by deaf children across the continent, not just in Kenya? We have seen some of the organizations and schools maybe not many taking up and borrowing so much into AI and their robotics technology and how it will

16:10help when it comes to education is that incorporation of that in classes will be very helpful and especially now that we are looking into inclusive education in Africa and also in Kenya, having that kind of technology being introduced in the classes and in the regular classes, then we see the interaction between the hearing child and the deaf child together and you know them learning the same content. So what happens is when it comes to technology then, as the teacher is teaching there would be some interpretation happening somewhere on the screen and that will be able to help the child who is included in the regular class be able to learn just like any other. But let's talk a bit about the teachers now. Oftentimes they struggle to convey complex concepts in sign using sign language due to limited vocabulary and even resources. So how can this AI

17:11and robotics help bridge that gap for the teachers now? This is what happens for sign language. There are so many vocabularies that yet we do not have the signs and so that becomes a challenge for the teacher and maybe with the knowledge of the teacher the teacher can be able to explain it in words. For example there is a word like extravaganza. Extravaganza is not a name that will be having a sign but a teacher can be able to explain extravaganza using technology and explaining it to prompt so that it can give or simplify the name extravaganza in a way that a deaf person would understand it. And also apart from that now there is the development of the language. There is the need to have the development of the language and the signs for the very complex words and they could be fed into the technology if it's AI or robotics and it can be very easy for the deaf people to be

18:15able to understand now in their language that they understand better. We'll come back to the conversation with Diana shortly but first here is the experience of a teacher in Kenya explaining where artificial intelligence and robotics can help improve teaching and learning. I teach physics and in most cases we realize that the concepts that we teach and the way our experts are concept it becomes a challenge at some point because of the signs and the vocabulary that is needed to express a given concept and so if we can have a robot helping me bring or express the concepts in a way that a learner can understand, a language that my learners can understand better than I believe. The concepts of physics will not be as technical and abstract as they've been hearing them. Now back to our conversation with Diana Kamau. For me when it comes to Africa developing sign language and if it's possible if we can have

19:19one language, one sign language being incorporated in the continent then that one would really work so well. Now some advocates worry that technology could replace human sign language interpreters and even the teachers. How do you ensure that technological solutions complement their efforts rather than replace them? That's a good question and it's a question that usually has a lot of contention because looking at it we have the technology and we have the interpreters who are you know the human aspect of it. Communication is very key when there is the human touch right there. When we lack that of course there is an aspect of communication that is not happening. However for me I would recommend if we would have the sign language interpreters equip themselves and study you know be very specific like if it's an area of media or if it's an area of engineering

20:19there will be able to study more and even specify on different areas when it comes to interpretation so that they can be able to complement that which is being displayed or being seen from the technology part of it. Then are you spoken about the need for Africa to have a continental sign language where it cuts across the continent for everyone to understand. But looking ahead what would a truly inclusive classroom look like for a deaf child in Africa and on what role do you see emergency technologies playing in achieving that vision over the next decade. Now this is how I see an inclusive class for the deaf child looking like is having everyone and including the children the hearing children learn sign language. So if only we can encourage sign language to be learned by every child in school then that would be an inclusive class and school for the deaf

21:23because that's the only challenge that is their communication and look at it this way. There's a movement that we have that says that sign language is cool. Sign language is cool is a way of making people and especially so the hearing people through what we call a reverse inclusion so that now the hearing learner is taught. The sign language and their teachers are able to use sign language as an aspect of play, an aspect of learning and they thrive together so that's how I would see an inclusive class looking like. Everyone in class learning the basic and the teachers using sign language in the class. Many thanks to Diana Camau the founder and director of sign language is School Home. And that's it on focus on Africa today. If you'd like to give us feedback about the program or even suggest stories we should cover our email is focus on Africa at bbc.co.uk.

22:27You can also send us a message on WhatsApp. The number is plus 254 791 269 243. Now this episode was produced by Rukia Bule in Nairobi. Our technical producer is Herbert the senior journalist in charge is Charles Gittonga and the editors are Daniel Dazie and Abdelak. I am Kaci Obun and I'll speak to you again soon.