Chad: Humanitarian situation overview - November 2023

Overview

In the eastern provinces of Chad (Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira), the armed conflict that has been raging in Sudan since last April has led to an influx of 450,636 new Sudanese refugees and 98,513 Chadian returnees as of 21 november, exacerbating the vulnerability of populations already living in a complex humanitarian situation. These people are in addition to the 427,024 Sudanese refugees who have been occupying 13 refugee sites and one village in this part of Chad for over a decade. This crisis comes at a difficult time for the east, where a significant proportion of the host population was already facing food and nutritional insecurity, with limited access to basic social services, exacerbated by low levels of infrastructure development, resulting in significant humanitarian needs. If more attention is not paid to the urgent needs of the host population in the three provinces, this could fuel their frustration and lead to conflict with refugees/returnees in the camps/sites.

Lac Province continues to be characterised by an increase in attacks and incursions by armed groups, resulting in new population displacements of approximately 54,000 people between July and September 2023. In May, IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) recorded 215,928 IDPs. Similarly, the Protection Cluster recorded 56 security incidents between July and September 2023, including 40 attacks and 16 cases of criminality.

In the south of Chad, several flood warnings were recorded between August and September 2023 in the provinces of Logone Oriental, Mandoul, Tandjilé and Mayo Kebbi Est, destroying 18,130 hectares of crops and 2,700 houses, killing five people in rural Doba (sub-prefecture of Beboni), injuring 110 people, causing the loss of 21 small animals and displacing 2,400 people from the sub-prefecture of Katawa,
Mayo-Kebbi East towards Cameroon, in the locality of Moura.

The July 2023 updated Cadre Harmonisé estimates that 5.7 million people are now food insecure in Chad, including 2.1 million in the severe phase (IPC phases 3 to 5) at the national level. Seventeen departments are in the severe phase of food insecurity and 43 departments are in the pressure phase (phase 2 of the CH), with almost 3.6 million people at risk of falling into the severe phase if they do not receive livelihood support and treatment for acute malnutrition. According to data from the National Technical Committee for Epidemic Control (CNTLE) on admissions of cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) from January to August 2023, 256,759 people were admitted to the SAM management programme, 108 per cent more than the expected number of cases (237,408 people) for this period.

Between July and October, a total of 5,539 cases of meningitis, including 41 deaths, and 1,569 cases of measles, including one death, were recorded. This compares with 55 cases of meningitis, including 4 deaths, and 341 cases of measles, including 4 deaths, in the same period in 2022. Of the 1.1 million suspected cases of malaria, 760,077 were confirmed positive, compared with 946,430 suspected cases, of which 868,661 were confirmed positive, in the same period in 2022.

Despite the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the rate of funding in October 2023 for the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) 2023 revised and published in September was only 27 per cent of the $920.6 million required. The total amount of funds mobilised for the response in the east is estimated at $175.5 million, including $14 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

With the limited resources received, the humanitarian community, in support of the Government of Chad, has been able to provide at least multi-sectoral assistance to more than 1.1 million people in the first six months of 2023, including nearly 383,000 in food security, 674,000 in nutrition, 333,000 in health and 450,000 in water, hygiene and sanitation, among others. In addition, UNHCR facilitated the relocation of 176,860 refugees from spontaneous sites at the border to camps, and nearly 71,650 others were biometrically registered with the support of the Government