After fleeing Sudan’s war, refugees battle thirst in Chad’s camps

Goudrane and Adre, Chad – The water tanks had been bone dry for four days when a water truck crested the ridge above Goudrane refugee camp in eastern Chad, home to about 50,000 Sudanese refugees.Hundreds sprinted across the burning sand towards the slowing truck. For many families, one filled jerrycan meant another day of survival.The women at the front of the crowd fell first. They screamed as children clambered over them. Some sank to their knees, losing their grip on their jerrycans. Within 10 minutes, the crowd had surged around the truck until its 6,000 litres (1,585 gallons) of water were gone.Rokhia Ibrahim, 43, a Sudanese schoolteacher, watched as her dejected pupils walked away carrying empty buckets.“It was less than a year ago when I saw children like them die of thirst while escaping el-Fasher,” she said.Water crisisThis month, Al Jazeera interviewed dozens of Sudanese refugees, including Ibrahim, who fled horrific violence in Sudan and are now struggling to survive in camps across eastern Chad.For many, the desperate search for water has become another chapter in an ordeal that began with their escape from Sudan.Rokhia Ibrahim, 43 and a Sudanese schoolteacher, inside t...