Sudanese refugee foster families offer hope and a home to lone children

But when a group of neighbours stopped by the same tree to catch their breath, Abdoulaye's priorities quickly changed. In the chaos of escaping from the militia that raided their village, the neighbours had found two small children whose mother had been killed in the attack and whose father had disappeared.

The neighbours left the children with Abdoulaye and his wife Hawaye and continued their own frantic flight for the relative safety of the Chadian border.

There was no question of leaving the terrified children behind, Abdoulaye recalled in his new shelter in Arkoum refugee camp, eastern Chad. He watched as the two young children - 5-year-old Saleh and his little sister Maimouna, 3 - played beneath the canopy of their shared home.

"I decided that if we die, we will die together, I'm not abandoning the children," he said of the hot summer afternoon in 2023 when he fled his home and found the children.

Soon after the conflict in Sudan ignited in April 2023, Abdoulaye and Hawaye had sent their own three children to Chad for safety, where they were living with family members. As he limped into the camp with his wife and the two rescued children, Abdoulaye discovered that news had spread that he had died in the attack on their village.

"Everyone thought that I was dead," he said. "They were so happy to see me alive."

Abdoulaye and Hawaye were reunited with their children who welcomed their two new siblings with open arms.