Sudanese refugees face crisis in Chad as funds dry up: UN

A United Nations agency issued a warning on Tuesday that all life-saving food aid in Chad, which is being provided to hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn Sudan, will cease in April unless international funding is secured.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is urging $242 million in donations to sustain assistance for 1.2 million Sudanese refugees. This is particularly crucial as the impending rainy season threatens road access, hindering humanitarian deliveries in eastern Chad.

In a statement, WFP’s Chad director Pierre Honnorat said “We are in a race against time…we’ve already cut our operations in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, leaving hungry people close to starvation…We need donors to prevent the situation from becoming an all-out catastrophe.”

Sudan’s expansive western region was still grappling with the aftermath of the devastation from 2003 when a conflict erupted last April between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The recent surge in violence has displaced approximately eight million people in Sudan, further exacerbating the situation for the over 400,000 refugees who had already sought safety in Chad between 2003 and 2020.

Nearly 230,000 children, new mothers risk dying of hunger

Earlier today, Save the Children warned that without critical action, nearly 230,000 children and new mothers in Sudan are “likely to die from hunger.”