Some Sudanese women and girls claim that men, including those meant to protect them, such as humanitarian workers and local security forces, have sexually exploited them in Chad’s displacement sites, offering them money, easier access to assistance and jobs. Such sexual exploitation in Chad is a crime.

Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them women, have poured into Chad to escape Sudan’s civil war, which has killed more than 20,000 people. Aid groups are struggling to support them in growing places of displacement.

Three women spoke to AP in the town of Adre near the Sudanese border. A Sudanese psychologist told of seven other women and girls who either refused to speak directly to a reporter or were no longer in contact with her. The AP could not confirm their accounts.

Daral-Salam Omar, the psychologist, said all seven told her they accepted the offers of favors in exchange for sex out of necessity. Some sought her help because they became pregnant and could not seek an abortion at a clinic for fear of being ostracized by their community, she said.

“They were destroyed psychologically. Imagine a woman getting pregnant without a man in the middle of this situation,” Omar said.

Sexual exploitation during major humanitarian crises is not uncommon, especially in places of displacement. Aid groups have long struggled to combat the issue. They cite a lack of reporting by women, not enough funding to respond and a focus on providing basic necessities first.

The UN refugee agency said it does not publish data on cases, citing victims’ confidentiality and safety.

People seeking shelter should never have to make choices driven by survival, experts said. Nidhi Kapur, who works to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse in emergencies, said the exploitation represents a profound failure of the aid community.

Yewande Odia, representative of the UN Population Fund in Chad, said that sexual exploitation is a serious violation. UN agencies said displacement camps have “safe spaces” where women can gather, along with information sessions, a free hotline and feedback boxes to report abuse anonymously.

Still, many of the Sudanese women said they were not aware of the hotline, and some said using the boxes would attract unwanted attention.

The Sudanese woman with the newborn said she was afraid to report the aid worker for fear he would hand her in to the police.

She said she approached the aid worker, a Sudanese man, after looking for a job to buy basic necessities like soap. She asked him for money. He said he would give her money but only in exchange for sex.

They slept together for months, she said, and he paid the equivalent of about $12 each time. After she had the baby, he gave her a one-time payment of about $65 but denied it was his, she said.

The man was a Sudanese worker for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, she said.

Two other Sudanese women said Chadian men working at MSF facilities – one dressed in MSF clothing – solicited them after they applied for work with the organization. The men took their phone numbers and called repeatedly, saying they would give them jobs for sex. Both women said they refused.

Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary-general, said the organization was not aware of the allegations and wanted to investigate. “Asking for money or sex in exchange for access to care or a job is a clear breach of our behavioral commitments,” he said.

MSF would not say how many such cases have been reported among Sudanese refugees in Chad. Last year, of 714 complaints made about the conduct of MSF staff where they work globally, 264 were confirmed to be cases of abuse or inappropriate behavior including sexual exploitation, abuse of power and bullying, Lockyear said.

Lockyear said MSF is creating a pool of investigators at the global level to improve its ability to prosecute.

One woman told the AP that a man with another aid group also took advantage of her, but she could not identify the organization. Omar, the psychologist, said several of the women told her they were exploited by aid workers, locally and internationally. She provided no evidence to support the claims.

Another woman, one of two who claimed to have been approached after applying for work with MSF, said she also refused a local police officer who approached her and promised her an extra food ration card if she went to his house.

Ali Mahamat Sebey, head of Adre, said the police are not allowed to stay in the camps and claimed the allegations against them of exploitation were false. However, with the growing influx of people, it is difficult to protect everyone, he said.

The women said they just want to feel safe, adding that access to jobs would reduce their vulnerability.

After most of her family was killed or kidnapped in the Darfur region of Sudan last year, a 19-year-old sought refuge in Chad. She did not have enough money to support the nieces and nephews in her care. She got a job at a restaurant in the camp but when she asked her Sudanese boss for a raise, he agreed on the condition of sex.

The money he paid was more than six times her salary. But when she became pregnant with his child, the man fled, she claimed. She rubbed her growing belly.

“If we got enough, we wouldn’t have to go out and lose our dignity,” she said.