The Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violette Kakyomya, warned on Monday that the country is facing multiples humanitarian crises and called for urgent support. The conflict in Sudan is having a strong impact on neighboring Chad, with nearly 490,000 Sudanese refugees – mostly women and children – having crossed the border into the eastern part of the Sahel country to seek safety. In total, there are currently one million refugees living in Chad.
The humanitarian crisis in Chad is driven by a deadly combination of food insecurity, forced displacement, health emergencies and climate change shocks. The situation prompted an urgent United Nations request on Monday for funding to assist 7 million people out of at total population of 18 million.
Briefing reporters at the UN in Geneva, a Chadian official warned that community hostility in Chad is rising as thousands of refugees from conflict-ridden Sudan continue to arrive, putting pressure on limited resources Chadians depend on for their livelihoods and survival.
"People in Chad have been displaced from their own communities because the pressure of the many refugees that have arrived has even pushed them further into the country and displaced them from their natural homes," said Madeleine Alingué, Chad’s Secretary of State for Economic Prosperity and international Partnerships.
"We really think that if we do not take care of the host communities, this hostility, the tension can be brought up and we can have instability in that region," she said.
Eastern Chad is facing an unprecedented new influx of refugees and returnees from Sudan. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports nearly 490,000 Sudanese have sought refuge in Chad since April 15, when armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) plunged the country into a catastrophic war.
UNHCR projects more than 600,000 Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees will arrive in eastern Chad before the end of the year.
"Chad is living in an unstable regional situation, bordered by countries in a state of crisis," said Alingue. "Our border with Libya is in crisis, so is Niger, the Central African Republic and Sudan," she said, noting that Chad, with its open-door policy, has received many refugees fleeing these surrounding countries in crisis.
"This is putting enormous pressure on our resources, which are limited," she said, noting that only one-fourth of the more than $920 million needed for lifesaving operations in the country has been received.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reports 5.7 million people are food insecure, with 2.1 million suffering from acute hunger. Last year saw the worst lean season in a decade, leaving 2.1 million people severely food insecure. Although the projected figures for the 2023 lean season are lower, they still forecast 1.86 million severely food insecure people.
Joining the call for more urgent funding, Pierre Honnorat, Director and Representative of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Chad, described the situation in the country as “catastrophic”. Multiple emergencies have stretched the UN agency’s capacity to respond in full to those in need.
“We have to respond to…six emergencies: we support the Government's response in these six emergencies which are the Cameroonian refugees, Nigerien refugees, refugees from the Central African Republic, Sudanese refugees today and of course internally displaced people, plus as I say, this lean season. So, we really need support and this is a call today”, he said.
"People have just gone through the worst lean period in a decade," said Kakyomya, who is also UN Resident Coordinator in Chad. She said that the lean period, the time before the next harvest, is when food stocks are at their lowest and "people have been unable to meet their basic food needs."
Kakyomya said people in Chad are living in one of the countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change.
"We have suffered from floods and drought, affecting more than 7 million people out of a population of 18 million."
Last year, the heaviest rains since the 1960s triggered a major crisis, impacting 1.4 million people and destroying 350,000 hectares of valuable farmland.
Chad also suffers from recurrent diseases and epidemics such as malaria, measles and meningitis, affecting almost 1.7 million people, half of whom are women and girls. They face problems of access to basic health care throughout the country.
Despite the many challenges, Kakyomya said Chad has always been welcoming to refugees. Over the past two decades, and during periods of violence and the arrival of new refugees, she said Chad still managed to engage in a vibrant trading relationship with Sudan.
Since Sudan has become a war zone, she noted that trade between the two countries has stopped, creating great difficulties for both the refugee and local host communities in Chad.
"The local population is turning up more and more at food distribution sites," she said. "They want food for themselves. They are expressing their needs. We cannot just watch them standing by while we assist the refugees. We need to assist them as well," she said.
UN officials have been meeting with international donors in Geneva to highlight the dire humanitarian situation in Chad. The UN is also seeking to persuade donors to fill the large funding gap threatening the ability of aid agencies to respond to the food, forced displacement, health and climate change emergencies facing the population.
"The response to eastern Chad must be multi-dimensional. It is not just a response to the refugees, but a response to the needs of the host community is crucial," the Humanitarian Coordinator stressed.
"This is very fertile ground for social instability and conflict," she warned.
The revised 2023 UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Chad targets 5.2 million people out of 7.6 million in need. Among those in need are some 3 million children. More than six months into the response, Chad has received 26 percent ($244 million) out of the required funding of a total $920.6 million.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.