- Overcrowded refugee camps in eastern Chad are facing imminent financial depletion, according to the United Nations.
- The United Nations World Food Program has stated that more than one million people in Chad, including refugees, risk losing access to life-saving aid without funding.
- The conflict in Sudan has claimed more than 5,000 lives, displaced millions and contributed to the influx of refugees into Chad.
Overcrowded refugee camps in eastern Chad will soon run out of funding, the United Nations says, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis caused by spillover from the deadly conflict in Sudan.
More than a million people in Chad, including refugees, are at risk of losing access to life-saving aid unless more funds are raised to help them, the United Nations World Food Program said this month.
A devastating conflict between rival generals in Sudan has left more than 5,000 people dead and more than 5 million displaced, the United Nations says. The number of refugees in Chad is at its highest in 20 years. The United Nations has warned that a third of Sudan’s 18 million people already face severe food insecurity and that the conflict is becoming the world’s worst hunger crisis.
US pledges more than $47 million in humanitarian aid to war-torn Sudan
In refugee camps in eastern Chad, a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation is causing the spread of dangerous diseases. Médecins Sans Frontières said about 1,000 hepatitis E cases had been recorded in the camp, and several pregnant women had died.
Sudanese refugees displaced by the Sudanese conflict gather to receive staple food from aid agencies at Meche camp in eastern Chad on March 5, 2024. Overcrowded refugee camps in eastern Chad will soon run out of funding, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis caused by spillovers from Sudan’s civil war, the United Nations says. (AP Photo/Jsarh Ngarndey Ulrish)
“The situation in all camps is dire,” said Ernault Mondesir, the group’s regional medical coordinator. “Without immediate action to improve sanitation infrastructure and increase people’s access to clean water, we risk seeing a surge in preventable diseases and unnecessary loss of life.”
The Metche camp shelters around 40,000 refugees, with people in dire need of water, food, shelter and basic sanitation. Earlier this month, an Associated Press reporter witnessed aid workers unloading bags of grain for distribution from trucks as fierce winds blew across the rocky, sandy ground.
Aid workers used loudspeakers to explain their work and handed out tokens to refugees. “Here we are distributing in a targeted manner,” said Ahmat Absakiin, an aid worker with Caritas, another aid organization in the region.
Water shortages are causing the spread of disease, and aid workers fear it could be catastrophic if supplies run dry.
UN official warns that Sudan faces the world’s biggest hunger crisis due to continuing conflict
Pierre Honora, the World Food Program’s representative in Chad, said: “The fallout from the Sudanese crisis is overwhelming the lack of funding and overreaching humanitarian response in Chad. How can we prevent the situation from becoming a full-scale catastrophe? , we need donors.”
Analysts also worry that the humanitarian situation could cause political tensions in Chad itself. In February, opposition leader Yahya Dilo was murdered in the capital. He is the president’s cousin and was a leading candidate in the presidential election scheduled for May.
Funding and aid supplies for humanitarian operations are extremely scarce. This will intensify competition for resources between refugees and host communities in eastern Chad, further escalating regional tensions and instability,” said Andrew Smith, Senior Africa Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. he said.
Chad’s interim president Mahamat Deby Itno took power after his father, who had ruled the country for more than 30 years, was killed in fighting with rebels in 2021. Last year, the government announced it would extend the 18-month transition period for another two years. protests across the country.
