Vatican newspaper shines spotlight on ‘forgotten’ refugees fleeing Sudan

December 22, 2025

The Vatican newspaper devoted the most prominent front-page article in its December 19 edition to what charitable organizations have described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis: the plight of refugees fleeing the Sudanese civil war.

In “Accanto ai dimenticati del Sudan“ [Alongside the forgotten of Sudan], Giada Aquilino interviewed Brother Fabio Mussi, PIME, an official of the apostolic vicariate of Mongo in Chad, which borders Sudan.

“They are mainly women and children,” he said, “but what is most striking now is that the number of unaccompanied minors is increasing: in the last few weeks, more than 200 have arrived, which means that mainly families have left, but that during the journey the parents or older people were killed, so the children continued the journey alone or with some of the older ones.”

“We have decided to resume the distribution of food and blankets—another shipment will be sent next month—to the new arrivals: these are people who travel with only a small bundle on their heads, if they even have that,” said Brother Mussi, who estimated the number of Sudanese refugees in Chad at over 1.1 million.

Brother Mussi discussed the suffering of the refugees, as well as the efforts of the vicariate to help some of them to break out of the “spiral of dependence on external aid,” by helping them to garden and sell their produce at a local market.

“Even though we are far away, in the middle of Africa, the hope is that these people living through the Sudanese crisis will not be abandoned,” he said.

 

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Further information:

• Accanto ai dimenticati del Sudan (L'Osservatore Romano, 12/19/25)