Doctors Without Borders Report Reveals Abuse and Exploitation by Staff in Chad
Doctors Without Borders has uncovered a pattern of abuse and sexual exploitation by some local and international staff working in Chad, near the Sudanese border. Some cases targeted underage girls, while others involved bartering food or job opportunities for sexual favors with refugees, according to a confidential internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The report, completed in July and first reported by The Associated Press on Saturday, documented 59 allegations of abuse. Eighteen staff members were dismissed and barred from working with the organization. In some cases, the allegations could not be verified, and the perpetrators could not be identified. The report also indicated that some of the repeated abuses may suggest organized sex trafficking.
The organization said it launched a months-long investigation in response to Associated Press reports that women had accused staff of sexually exploiting them in displacement camps in Chad, where hundreds of thousands have fled the devastating civil war in Sudan, now in its fourth year. The report acknowledged that the Associated Press played a “key role as an outside whistleblower.”
The findings of the investigation by Doctors Without Borders (MSF)—one of the largest employers and humanitarian organizations in refugee camps in eastern Chad—indicate that the scale of the abuses was more extensive than previously thought.
The report details various forms of abuse and exploitation within MSF.
The organization began its investigation in the fall of 2024 and found allegations of exploitation and abuse involving Chadian nationals and Sudanese refugees, as well as staff and contractors.
The report stated that MSF was investigating several cases of women being sexually exploited in exchange for food, water, and milk. The report also documented instances of sex being exchanged for jobs, as well as the exploitation of refugee women, including underage girls, in prostitution. It noted that in one section of a camp, staff members were observed actively soliciting girls, and that local community leaders had imposed a curfew to prevent young girls from “visiting” the organization’s staff.
In one incident detailed in the report, seven refugee girls were employed as day laborers and then transported in an organization vehicle after being told they were going to water distribution sites and construction sites. However, the girls were taken to another location where, according to the report, they were subjected to sexual abuse and demands for sex. The investigation also concluded that some Chadian female staff members were threatened with job loss if they refused to engage in sexual relations with supervisors or colleagues.