Millions of refugees in Chad are currently at risk with the United Nations (UN) announcing it can no longer sustain its support programme in the country.

Development Diaries reports that the World Food Programme (WFP) urgently needs U.S.$142.7 million over the next six months to maintain its refugee assistance programme and provide life-saving food assistance to crisis-affected communities.

According to the UN, the WFP can only assist 270,000 of the 600,000 refugees in Chad due to significant shortfalls in funding support.

Chad is home to over one million forcibly displaced persons, including about 600,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon and Nigeria, and 381,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Of the 600,000 refugees, some 145,000 (about 24 percent) have arrived in Chad since 2018, and new groups continue to arrive every year; mainly from Sudan – but also from CAR and Nigeria.

‘If there is no more food assistance in May, this will be catastrophic for refugees and host populations alike, as the lean season is fast approaching when we will see a spike in hunger levels’, WFP Representative in Chad, Pierre Honnorat, said in a statement.

‘We need to act now to ensure we can continue providing life-saving food assistance’.

Recent assessments of humanitarian situations in refugee camps and host communities reveal worrying deterioration of refugees’ nutrition and food security.

There has been a 65 percent rise in the number of malnourished children admitted to treatment programmes in camps in the east of the country.

It is understood that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urgently needs US$172.5 million to continue providing protection and relief assistance to over a million forcibly displaced persons and their hosts.

However, so far, just 15 percent of the funds required by UNHCR has been secured.

Source: WFP

Photo source: United Nations