Chad is hardly able to look after itself let alone hundreds of thousands of refugees. Its a country marred by decades of civil war and life expectancy is just 47.7 years. There are inevitably tensions between those living in refugee camps and the local population. "“The refugees get food regularly,” says one villager close to the camps. “That’s nice for them. But we don’t have anyone who will give us food. We have nothing. Everyone is suffering.”

Another issue of contention is wood. Many from the camps forage around for firewood, as do the locals. As another villager commented “Before the refugees arrived it was easy to get wood to prepare meals. Since their arrival all of the wood has gone. We have to walk three to four hours to the mountains to find wood.”

The refugee camps are known targets for the kidnap and abduction of children, some as young as just six years old, into groups such as the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Others were lured by the promise of education in southern Sudan after the end of the conflict, whilst others willingly joined up, seeing no future in the bleak refugee camps, only abject poverty and starvation. This short video explores the Sudan refugee camps in Chad. For details about the conflict in Dafur click here.