UAE aid team distributes food and tents for Sudanese refugees

The Emirates is delivering ongoing support in Chad, where large numbers of Sudanese people have fled

Sudanese family sit beside their belongings while waiting to be registered by the UN Refugee Agency after crossing the border into Adre, Chad. All photos: Reuters

Sudanese children who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, line up to receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad.

A Sudanese woman carries her daughter after being relocated from makeshift shelters to a refugee camp in Ourang, Chad.

A volunteer hands a child to his mother, a Sudanese woman, in a French Army truck that will relocate them to a refugee camp in Ourang, Chad.

An aerial view of a refugee camp in Ourang, Chad, where Sudanese refugees who fled the conflict in their homeland are based.

A Sudanese woman sits beside her daughter who is suffering from malnutrition at a Medecins Sans Frontieres mission hospital in Adre, Chad.

Sudanese refugees sit on a truck that will relocate them to a refugee camp in Adre, Chad.

A Sudanese woman who fled the conflict sits with her children on the ground beside makeshift shelters in Adre, Chad.

Sudanese refugees sit inside a makeshift shelter during a rainstorm at a refugee camp in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad.

Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region sit inside their shelter during a storm at a refugee camp in Ourang, Chad.

Sudanese refugees use plastic sheeting to shield themselves from the rain at the camp in Ourang, Chad.

An Emirati humanitarian team has delivered additional food and shelter to Sudanese refugees in Chad who have fled conflict in their homeland.

A delegation led by the Emirates Red Crescent, the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, has provided crucial assistance to communities in the Central African country in recent weeks.

Chad has welcomed huge numbers of people from neighbouring Sudan since fighting broke out in April.

Representatives from a UAE aid co-ordination office in Chad said food parcels had been distributed to the most vulnerable areas in the city of Amdjarass.

Twenty tents were also given to Sudanese refugees in the village of Karyari to boost their living conditions.

Thousands of refugees fleeing Darfur to neighbouring Chad to escape fighting and ethnically targeted attacks in Sudan's western region are struggling to find basic shelter and supplies as heavy rain and wind batter makeshift camps.

The UN estimates that more than 300,000 fled from Darfur to Chad since April 15, when fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in Khartoum.

The UAE this week opened a second foreign aid co-ordination office in Chad.

The UAE opened a field hospital in Amdjarass on July 9 as part of its efforts to bolster health services battling to treat a huge influx of refugees.

The facility, opened under the directives of President Sheikh Mohamed, treated more than 1,200 refugees in its first 10 days.

It is focused on cases involving women, children, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses.

Since the conflict started on April 15, the UAE has operated an air and sea bridge to the region, transporting nearly 2,000 tonnes of medical, food and relief materials to Port Sudan and Chad.