Duchess Sophie reduced to tears after meeting Sudanese refugees fleeing civil war

Sharnaz Shahid
·3 min read
Duchess Sophie sits down on floor
The Duchess of Edinburgh during a visit to Chad in central Africa (Getty)

The Duchess of Edinburgh was visibly moved to tears during her recent visit to Chad, where she met with refugees who had fled the brutal civil war in Sudan.

During her time there, the Duchess listened to their heartbreaking accounts of sexual violence and the harrowing experiences they endured.

Duchess Sophie talks to women
The Duchess of Edinburgh looked visibly moved during a visit to Chad in central Africa (Getty)

Sophie, 59, became the first member of the royal family to make an official visit to the central African country, spending three days in Chad, including a day at the border with Sudan, before departing on Monday afternoon.

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At a hospital centre in Adre, near the border, the Duchess hugged five survivors of conflict-related sexual violence after hearing what they had been through.

Overcome with emotion, Sophie was moved to tears as she addressed the media following the private meeting, reflecting on the profound impact of the survivors' courage and resilience.

Duchess Sophie talks to woman
The royal met refugees crossing the border from Sudan to escape the eighteen-month civil war (Getty)

"People are having to exchange food and water for sex, for rape," she said. "That is violence that is being enacted through conflict. It is being used as a bargaining tool.

"These women have no option but to leave. And, even then, they're lucky if some of them can get away because some of the villages and towns that they come from they can't even leave their houses any more. If they leave their houses they get killed."

The royal added: "What they do to the children is… I can't even use the words."

The Duchess - who has two children, Lady Louise Windsor, 20, and 16-year-old James, the Earl of Wessex with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh - admitted she was "quite wobbly" after hearing the women’s experiences, which she described as "devastating".

Duchess Sophie walking down some steps
The Duchess spoke to victims of conflict-related sexual violence and saw work carried out by UNICEF (Getty)

One of the women who Sophie met said afterwards she had fled the city of Geneina, in the west Darfur region of Sudan, after thousands of people were killed in a matter of days.

The woman said her family had been threatened with death and rape if they left their home, while her teenage son and brothers were among men who were rounded up and taken away.

After arriving in Chad's capital city N'Djamena on Saturday, Sophie took an early morning flight on Sunday to Farchana on the other side of the country.

The Duchess listened to heartbreaking accounts from refugees
The Duchess listened to heartbreaking accounts from refugees (Getty)

A motorcade with a military escort then took her a further hour and a half's drive, over rough terrain, to Adre, where more than 220,000 refugees, mostly women and children, are living in a camp after fleeing following the conflict between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF which broke out in April 2023.

After her emotional meeting with the sexual violence survivors, Sophie visited a session run by Plan International, which runs mobile protection units to try to identify children in the camps who need help.

The Duchess is a champion of the UN's Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS) and a supporter of the UK's Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI).