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HIGHLIGHTS
WFP SCALES UP EMERGENCY, AS NO. OF SUDAN ARRIVALS IN CHAD SURPASSES HALF A MILLION
• WFP has activated a corporate scale-up of its regional response to the Sudan crisis until May 2024, including Chad as a high priority country. Humanitarian needs have sharply escalated since clashes broke out in Sudan this April and WFP is highly concerned with the consequences of chronic underfunding for the multiple crises and increasing needs in the country. Urgent funding is critical as Chad holds a role in maintaining stability in the region, as it is surrounded by countries with unstable contexts and complex conflicts.
• Over 5 million are internally displaced and more than 1.28 million people (UNHCR)* have fled Sudan, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. Chad hosts the highest number of arrivals in the region, with 451,000 refugees (UNHCR) and 98,000 returnees (IOM) to Eastern Chad**.
• Following the recent escalation in violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, 8,200 people fled to Chad’s border town of Adre in early November (UNHCR)***, though this is considered an underestimation. WFP is already responding to needs on the ground with food distributions for these new arrivals.
• In support of the Government of Chad’s response to the Sudan crisis, WFP has assisted 537,000 refugees, returnees and the most vulnerable among host communities in Eastern Chad (see map). Among them, 156,000 vulnerable women and children received malnutrition interventions.
• WFP regularly carries out targeting exercises for host communities who have been affected by the Sudan crisis in Chad. WFP does this to better target its emergency food and nutrition assistance. Since the beginning of October alone, over 25,600 people were targeted in the East of the country, using a community-based approach. The most vulnerable households along Chad’s border with Sudan and near refugee/returnee sites were prioritized.
• Due to limited funding, WFP operations face a complete break in emergency food assistance by end of January 2024, with a complete break in nutrition assistance by February. This will affect 1.4 million refugees, returnees, hosts, IDPs, and school children under the emergency school feeding programme. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Lac province have not received assistance for several months and this year has seen a sharp rise in the levels of poor food consumption among IDPs from 14% in 2022 to 40% in 2023 (based on WFP surveys).