Connectivity for Refugees: Connected Centres in Eastern Chad

Chad hosts roughly 1.5 million refugees, most having fled the war in Sudan, settled largely in the arid Ouaddaï region on the eastern border, where connectivity has historically been thin and expensive. Camps and settlements including Djabal, Farchana, Idrimi and Oure Cassoni have had limited internet access for education, financial services and healthcare.

Since 2023, UNHCR, the ITU and the GSMA — together with Luxembourg-funded Emergency.LU satellite backhaul and mobile operators Airtel Chad and Moov Africa — have built four 'connected centres' in these settlements under the global Connectivity for Refugees initiative, giving refugees and host communities shared internet access. A joint field mission visited the centres in October-November 2025.

GSMA reporting shows 85% of refugees in Chad live within 2G coverage but only 1-3% have 4G access, and only around 13% of people in Chad use mobile money, compared with roughly 55% in neighbouring Cameroon. High device costs, low literacy, fragile infrastructure and heavy telecom/handset taxation are cited as the main barriers to expanding service further. No public figures yet quantify how many people have used the four centres, and UNHCR and GSMA are seeking at least $20 million in core support and $200 million in wider investment to reach a global target of 20 million forcibly displaced people and host communities by 2030.