Front Burner (CBC)

Episode Summary: In Chad, inside camps for Sudan’s refugees

Air Date: November 27, 2025
Host: Jayme Poisson
Guest: Michelle Shepherd (Journalist & Filmmaker, The Walrus)

Overview

This episode delves into the catastrophic humanitarian crisis resulting from Sudan’s ongoing civil war, focusing particularly on the experiences of refugees who have fled to camps in Chad. Host Jayme Poisson interviews veteran journalist Michelle Shepherd, just back from a 10-day reporting trip to the Sudan-Chad border. The conversation covers the brutality of displacement, the pattern of war crimes (including sexual violence), ethnic targeting, and the overwhelming lack of international attention compared to past crises in Sudan.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Scale and Conditions of the Refugee Crisis

• Primitive Camps:
  • The largest camp near the Chad-Sudan border, Adré, has swelled to over 200,000 people. Unlike official UNHCR camps in places like Kenya or Pakistan, these are mostly makeshift shelters made of sticks, cloth, and plastic ([03:10]).
  • Medical services, water, and basic necessities are mainly supplied by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF).
  • Recent cholera epidemics and extreme heat make survival grueling ([03:10]).

Who Are the Refugees?

• Mostly from Darfur:
  • The majority of those interviewed were fleeing Darfur, often after weeks on foot, with little food or water ([04:41]).
  • Violence includes bombings, drone attacks, and widespread sexual violence.
  • Famine and deliberate starvation are used as weapons of war, echoing similar atrocities in other recent conflicts (notably Gaza, per Shepherd) ([04:41]).

Background: The War and Its Protagonists

• A Genocide Repeating Itself:
  • Shepherd and Poisson recap Sudan’s long struggle with ethnic violence, notably the 2004 Darfur genocide. Today’s civil war is a brutal contest for power and resources between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (Sudanese Army) and Gen. Mohamed "Hemedti" Dagalo (Rapid Support Forces, RSF), with roots in the infamous Janjaweed militias ([06:42]-[09:10]).
  • Shepherd argues the war is less a true civil war and more a proxy conflict, notably with significant support for the RSF from the UAE ([09:10]).
  • Refugees generally speak of “the Arabs”—the RSF and associated militias—as their persecutors ([10:20]).

Comparing Attention: Then and Now

• Neglected Crisis:
  • The Darfur genocide once spurred global campaigns (e.g., George Clooney, Ryan Gosling) ([10:40]).
  • Today, conflict fatigue, media cutbacks, and competing crises (Ukraine, Gaza) have left Sudan’s latest disaster largely ignored ([11:01]).
  • Lack of on-the-ground media presence means much of what filters out relies on secondary sources or perpetrators’ own digital documentation of violence ([11:01]).

Telling the Human Stories

Israel Aldean’s Family ([14:41]-[17:41])

• Flight and Survival:
  • Fled from El Fasher to an overcrowded IDP camp (Zamzam, ~700,000 people).
  • Following a massacre by RSF in the camp, her father was executed on the road as the family fled—his body was abandoned out of necessity.
  • The remaining family, mainly women and children, escaped a mass shooting from RSF vehicles with gun mounts.

“When he been killed, they just left him like this. They didn’t bury him. So because the time was so hard and even you can’t have minutes to... to be there and have that process. So they just left him like this.”
—[Sudanese Translator relaying Israel’s words, 16:53]

Survivors of Sexual Violence ([18:16]-[21:47])

• Child Victims:
  • Shepherd interviews a 13-year-old rape survivor holding her five-month-old baby, the product of the assault.
  • The survivor’s mother, also a victim, describes the attack and threats from an RSF soldier.

“How old is your baby?”
—Michelle Shepherd ([18:16])

“Five months. So cute. Now you get me crying too. No, it's good to cry. We should cry about this. It's horrible.”
—Michelle Shepherd ([18:24])

“RSF [soldier] rape her. At that time, she said, one of them, half knife and also half gun. And after that, he said, if you talk about anything about this doll to your mom or something, I can kill you.”
—Jayme Poisson, relating the translator’s account ([20:45])

Dr. Jude: A Doctor, a Refugee, a Survivor ([22:29]-[24:45])

• Resilience Amid Despair:
  • Dr. Jude, a survivor, now works as a physician in the camps for MSF.
  • She describes hiding her Masalit ethnicity to survive escape and expresses survivor’s guilt, feeling powerless to help others still at risk.
  • Emotional moments as Dr. Jude insists on bearing witness to the crisis.

“No, I really want to... I want to share this, share this to the world... It’s the simple thing that I can do. I can do nothing for the people at Sudan. Nothing I can do for my people.”
—Dr. Jude (Khaltum Adam Mohammad), ([24:02]-[24:23])

Ethnicity, Genocide, and the Nature of the War

• Central Role of Ethnicity/Race:

  • The targeting of non-Arab, darker-skinned groups (especially Masalit) by RSF/Janjaweed is a clear continuation of the patterns seen 20 years ago ([25:41]-[26:24]).
  • Dr. Jude tells of the life-or-death necessity of hiding her tribe’s identity to escape Sudan ([25:59]).

• Geopolitical Traps:

  • Civilians trapped by conflict: fleeing west into Chad (itself unstable), or south into DRC (site of other wars)—no truly safe escape ([27:29]).
  • Regional powers and foreign interests perpetuate conflict for strategic or economic gain ([28:15]).

International (In)Action and Canada’s Role

• Lack of Urgency:

  • Shepherd argues that ongoing wars persist, in part, because influential actors are invested in their continuation—and African lives are deprioritized on the global stage ([28:15]).
  • Diplomatic inertia and lack of resources hamper effective response. “A lot of people don’t want these wars to end... those lives just don’t matter on the larger scale.” —Michelle Shepherd ([28:15])

• Canada’s Silence on Genocide:

  • Despite past genocide recognitions (Yazidis, Rohingya, Uyghurs), Canada has not labeled Sudan’s crisis a genocide. Reasons likely include diplomatic ties (esp. to UAE) and lack of public/media pressure ([30:04]).
  • Shepherd notes the possibility for Canada to fill the void left by US disengagement, at least in humanitarian leadership, but laments there’s little sign of political will.
  • Points to historic Canadian media coverage (e.g., Ethiopia famine, Live Aid) as a reminder of what’s possible when attention is galvanized ([31:48]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

On the Scale of the Humanitarian Disaster

“Nothing was as primitive as this. It’s literally sticks put together with cloth or plastic over top. It’s quite crowded in certain areas. If it weren’t for Doctors Without Borders... they would have very, very few services.”
—Michelle Shepherd ([03:10])

On the Weaponization of Starvation

“Withholding food is being used as a weapon... and that’s something my piece is going to focus on... how increasingly we’re seeing that in wars.”
—Michelle Shepherd ([04:41])

On Why the World Isn’t Paying Attention

“If you’re of a certain age, you know about Darfur... But also, as you said, this advocacy... Where’s George Clooney now?... The world seems to only have the capacity to pay attention to one conflict.”
—Michelle Shepherd ([11:01])

On Bearing Witness

“No, I really want to... I want to share this to the world... I can do nothing for the people at Sudan. Nothing I can do for my people.”
—Dr. Jude (Khaltum Adam Mohammad), ([24:02])

On the Inescapable Violence

“There is no way out. These are people flanked by war on all sides. Where is the international urgency to help solve these conflicts, to help create a pathway for these people?”
—Jayme Poisson ([27:41])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:34] – Introduction and overview; warning of graphic content
• [03:10] – Description of camp conditions
• [06:27] – Recap of Sudanese civil war and Darfur genocide
• [09:10] – Discussion on proxy war and regional players
• [10:40] – Lack of modern humanitarian/cultural awareness compared to past crises
• [14:41] – Stories of family flight, mass killing, and survival
• [18:16] – Interviews with survivors of sexual violence
• [22:29] – Introduction of Dr. Jude and her experience
• [24:45] – Dr. Jude’s emotional witness and survivor’s guilt
• [25:41] – Centrality of ethnic targeting in the violence
• [27:41] – The situation for civilians: nowhere safe to flee
• [30:04] – Canada’s position and potential (or lack thereof)
• [31:48] – Reflection on past Canadian-led humanitarian responses

Tone and Language

The episode maintains a serious, empathetic, and unflinching tone throughout. Both Michelle Shepherd and Jayme Poisson emphasize the gravity of what is being witnessed and conveyed, often pausing to acknowledge the emotional toll and the dreadful reality faced by their interview subjects. The narrators avoid sensationalism, opting instead for direct witness and careful handling of survivor accounts.

Conclusion

This episode is a sobering, in-depth look at a massive but comparatively invisible crisis. Through Michelle Shepherd’s reporting and interviews with refugees and humanitarian workers, listeners are confronted not only with the urgency and severity of Sudan’s ongoing genocide, but also with the world’s indifference. The episode closes with a call—implicit in the testimonies—to bear witness, respond, and not forget Sudan’s displaced.