APA – N’Djamena (Chad) – Humanitarian aid mainly benefits Sudanese refugees and people suffering from hunger.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that its humanitarian operations in Chad will be interrupted in a few weeks.
According to the UN agency, its aid to 1.2 million Sudanese refugees and people affected by the crisis will be suspended in April 2024 due to a lack of funding.
The warning comes as thousands of Sudanese refugees continue to cross the border into Darfur and the rainy season threatens to cut off road access for humanitarian deliveries to the camps in the east of the country, where nearly a million people have found asylum.
“We are in a race against time. The small window for pre-positioning food is closing fast and our resources are dwindling at this dramatic time. We have already scaled down our operations to a level that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, leaving hungry people in an even more critical situation,” said Pierre Honnorat, WFP Representative and Country Director in Chad.
WFP is facing an unprecedented financial crisis and has already made budget cuts in respect of the central African nation. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan last April, irregular funding has forced WFP to focus on immediate needs and concentrate its efforts on new Sudanese refugees.
Next month, WFP will be forced to stop serving the new wave of Sudanese refugees. For months, the majority of refugees from Cameroon, Central African Republic and Nigeria have received no assistance due to lack of funds.
The reduction in rations is fuelling competition between refugees, returnees and host communities for already limited resources, sowing the seeds of tension and instability.
“The spillover from the Sudan crisis is overwhelming an already underfunded and overstretched humanitarian response in Chad. We need donors to prevent the situation from becoming a total disaster,” warned Pierre Honnorat.
WFP urgently needs $242 million to continue supporting people affected by the crisis in Chad for the next six months.
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