Chad appealed to the international community on Monday to increase support for feeding the nation and its significant refugee population, which includes 460,000 people fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that approximately 2.1 million individuals in Chad are facing severe food insecurity, describing the situation as catastrophic.
Madeleine Alingue, Chad’s Minister of Economic Prosperity and International Partnerships, urged the international community to enhance and back the humanitarian response plan, which is facing significant requirements. She made this appeal during a press conference at the United Nations in Geneva.
rewrite news line She called for a wider pool of donors beyond traditional partners such as the United States and the European Union to step forward, saying the stability that Chad “must guarantee in the region” ought to wake up new contributors.
Violet Kakyomya, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, revealed that the 2023 humanitarian response plan for the extensive African nation, adjusted due to the arrival of Sudanese refugees, has received just approximately 25 percent of the $920 million that was requested.
“We must do better,” she said.
In Chad, which is classified by the UN as the third least developed country in the world, approximately 5.7 million people are grappling with food insecurity.
“This means that they even have difficulty guaranteeing one meal a day,” explained WFP’s Chad director Pierre Honnorat.
“The situation is catastrophic… funding stops in December, then we really have nothing left,” he warned, explaining the agency had already had to reduce aid distribution.
He noted that the World Food Programme (WFP) can currently provide assistance to only 270,000 out of the 600,000 refugees who were in Chad before the crisis erupted in neighboring Sudan.
Chad is confronted with not only health emergencies but also the repercussions of climate change. The combined impact of these crises affects around seven million people out of the country’s total population of 18 million.
Moreover, Chad is directly affected by instability and regional conflicts, as stated by Alingue. The nation has received a significant influx of 460,000 refugees since April when the conflict in Sudan erupted.
