Chad Humanitarian Flash Update No. 3 (Refugees) - 23 May 2025

HUMANITARIAN OVERVIEW

• The recent clashes around El Fasher, in the Zamzam and Abou Shouk camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), have led to a continued influx of refugees into Chad. As of May 19, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and CNARR have registered 57,417 Sudanese refugees in Wadi Fira and Ennedi Est provinces through bio‐ metric pre-registration in Tiné and Ouré Cassoni.
• The arrival trend remains steady, with most new arrivals coming from North Darfur (93%) and South Darfur (6%). Among those registered, 10.3% have specific needs.
• Since the conflict began in Sudan on 15 April 2023, and as of 21 May 2025, the Chadian government, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have registered 832,831 Sudanese refugees and 273,654 Chadian returnees. 61 per cent of the refugees and 68 per cent of the returnees are children under 18.
• The host population in Chad has very limited access to basic social services such as health and nutrition care, protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). This sudden influx of refugees jeopardizes the fragile social cohesion and increases the risk of conflict between host communities and refugees.
• Refugees, returnees, and host population, including children, face sig‐ nificate health risks such as meningitis, dengue fever, diphtheria, hepatitis E, and measles. According to the latest national report on the diphtheria epidemic in Chad, a confirmed case of diphtheria was reported in Iriba (Wadi Fira province).
• The analysis in the health district of Iriba and Tine conducted on May 15, 2025, revealed alarming trends concerning the nutritional situation and exposure to an outbreak of measles. The rapid screening for malnutrition using the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference conducted by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) on 3,592 children aged 6-59 months show a global acute malnutrition (GAM) percentage of 13.8% and a severe acute malnutrition (SAM) percentage of 3.3%.

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

• A multisectoral participatory assessment led by humanitarian actors, in‐ cluding UNICEF, on 6 May 2025 in Tiné highlighted serious needs. The most urgent include access to safe water, sanitation, psychosocial support, child protection, shelter, essential supplies, health care, gender-based violence (GBV) support, and food.
• The revised budget needs for the Chad component of the 2025 Suda‐ nese Regional Refugee Response Plan amount to 553.3 million USD. UNICEF’s funding needs are 48.3 million USD, with a funding gap of 85 per cent as of the end of April 2025. UNICEF requires 41.3 million USD to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Eastern Chad.