Switzerland Withholds MSF Funding Over Unreported Sexual Exploitation in Chad Refugee Camps

Switzerland's Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has frozen CHF 1.25 million in funding to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) after the humanitarian group failed to promptly disclose the full scale of sexual exploitation allegations involving its staff in eastern Chad. The move, confirmed by the Swiss foreign ministry and reported across Swiss media including NZZ am Sonntag and swissinfo.ch, stems from an internal MSF investigation that documented 59 allegations of abuse, primarily against Sudanese refugee women and girls fleeing the ongoing civil war. Allegations included aid workers trading food, water, jobs, and humanitarian assistance for sex, with patterns suggesting possible organized exploitation in some cases.

The SDC first received a partial alert in November 2024 but only grasped the extent after the Associated Press published details from a confidential MSF memo in June 2026. MSF's probe, involving 16 investigators over eight months, led to the dismissal of 18 staff members (six from the Swiss section) and termination of one service provider contract. Some allegations were substantiated; others could not be verified due to identification challenges. MSF has acknowledged lapses, including inadequate systems for sharing 'Do Not Hire' lists across locations, and stated it has since strengthened prevention measures.

The funding freeze represents one tranche of a CHF 6.25 million annual pledge and comes amid broader Swiss plans to tighten reporting obligations for all NGO partners starting in 2027. Switzerland had previously provided around CHF 7 million for MSF projects in Chad and South Sudan in 2024-2025, including CHF 2 million for the affected eastern Chad operations. The decision reflects contractual breaches in timely reporting rather than disputes over the misconduct itself, which MSF does not contest. This case highlights systemic challenges in humanitarian operations in high-risk refugee settings, where power imbalances can enable exploitation, potentially eroding public trust in medical aid organizations and affecting the delivery of essential health services to vulnerable populations.