Published on 6/16/2026
Doctors Without Borders announced yesterday, Monday, the dismissal of 18 employees for committing “dangerous behavior” following investigations in which dozens of its employees were accused of sexually exploiting Sudanese refugee women in Chad.
The NGO told Agence France-Presse that it had launched a months-long investigation into “serious suspicions of exploitation, sexual abuse and abuse” reported in late 2024 by Sudanese refugee women in eastern Chad.
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Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest organizations providing aid in refugee camps in eastern Chad, said that its investigations revealed a number of cases of “serious misconduct,” expressing its “deep regret for the damage that resulted.”
According to the organization, investigations confirmed 59 complaints received, while other allegations remained unproven, as investigators were unable in some cases to identify the victims or perpetrators.
Disciplinary procedures
The organization added, “When investigations revealed serious misconduct, immediate disciplinary action was taken. As a result, 18 employees were dismissed, and are now banned from working with MSF.”
The list of defendants includes different categories, including contractors, outsourcers, and suppliers.
Doctors Without Borders said that this bad behavior represents a serious violation of the organization’s values and responsibilities, pointing to the strengthening of systems for prevention, monitoring, safe reporting of violations, and response.
The decision of Doctors Without Borders comes at a time when the National Commission to Investigate Crimes and Violations of National and International Humanitarian Law in Sudan announced that it had documented more than 30,000 cases of killing and more than 2,000 cases of rape, in addition to about 15,000 cases of detention and forced disappearance since the outbreak of war in the country more than 3 years ago.
The civil war in Sudan, which broke out in mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the displacement of more than 12 million people, and about a million of them fleeing west to Chad, according to the United Nations.
