UNICEF Chad Humanitarian Flash Update No. 1 (Refugees) - 09 May 2025

HUMANITARIAN OVERVIEW

• Following the attack of Zamzam and Abou Shouk internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in mid-April 2025, an estimated 28,178 refugees have crossed into Wadi Fira and Ennedi Est provinces in Eastern Chad in the past two weeks. As the situation in Sudan continues to deteriorate, the influx of refugees is expected to increase.
• The host population in Chad has very limited access to basic social services such as health 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 the two communities.
• Refugees, returnees, and the host population, including children are exposed to health risks such as dengue fever, diphtheria, hepatitis E, and measles. According to the latest national report on the diphtheria epidemic in Chad, a confirmed case was reported in the town of Iriba, in Wadi Fira province.
• The nutritional situation among under-five children in refugee camps was already worrying in Wadi Fira (Global Acute Malnutrition: 14.6%, and Severe Acute Malnutrition: 1.4%), according to the SMART-Sens survey carried out by the government and UNICEF/UNHCR/WFP in October 2024.
• Due to a lack of therapeutic nutrition units, most cases of severe acute malnutrition with complications among refugees and returnees as well children from the host population, are treated in one hospital in Iriba.
• There are hundreds of unaccompanied/separated children, but mental health and psychosocial services are insufficient.

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

• Since the beginning of the conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, and as of 4 May 2025, the Commission Nationale d’Accueil de Réinsertion des Réfugiés (CNARR), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have registered 794,482 Sudanese refugees and 216,337 Chadian returnees from Sudan. 60 per cent of the refugees and 68 per cent of the returnees are children under 18.
• Most humanitarian actors on the ground are intervening in Ouaddaï province. The response remains limited in Sila and Wadi Fira provinces, few humanitarian actors cover Ennedi Est. In all four affected provinces, few response interventions target the host population.
• The Chadian Government and the Humanitarian Country Team have planned a four-day visit in Wadi Fira province starting on 9 May 2025.
• The budget needs for the Chad component of the 2025 Sudanese Regional Refugee Response Plan amount to 701.3 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.