Chad reverses ban, allows Sudanese refugee students to sit national exams

The government of Chad will reportedly allow thousands of Sudanese refugee students to sit for national exams within its borders, reversing a 2024 decision that had barred them from participating.

In December 2024, the Chadian government barred around 6,000 refugee students, drawn from war-torn West Darfur, from taking the tests, despite criticism from Sudanese officials who argued it would jeopardise the students' futures.

Reports indicate that the Chadian Foreign Ministry communicated the decision on Tuesday, further announcing that the exams will be held on June 29.

The move followed a renewed plea by Darfur regional governor Minni Arko Minawi, who earlier criticised Chad's ban and urged President Mahamat Idriss Deby to reconsider.

According to the Sudan Tribune, Chad's Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, informed Sudan's newly appointed Chargé d'Affaires in N'Djamena, Ahmed Jamal, of the change, and called for coordination with Chad's education authorities and UN partners to organise the process.

Chad is currently sheltering more than one million Sudanese refugees who have fled widespread atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and genocide, committed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Since the outbreak of civil war in April 2023, the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has been implicated in mass killings, rape, forced displacement, and destruction of infrastructure targeting non-Arab communities, particularly the Masalit.

In April 2025 alone, Doctors Without Borders reported that a total of 70,000 refugees fleeing the war in Sudan's North Darfur Region arrived in Chad, painting a grim outlook of worsening conditions in the war-torn country.

According to Doctors Without Borders, out of these, 40,000 have arrived at the Tine transit camp in Wadi Fira province, with the majority of them coming from El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur. They are now facing overcrowded conditions and limited access to basic services.

"On arrival in Tine, some people are malnourished and experiencing profound psychological distress due to the horrific violence in North Darfur and on the roads leading to Chad," said the doctors' group in a past statement.

"The overwhelming majority are women and children coming from El Fasher and Zamzam camp for internally displaced people. They have already endured starvation as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) laid siege to these areas, and famine conditions have been prevalent for months in Zamzam camp."

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