Unless more financing is secured, the provision of food assistance to Sudanese refugees in Chad, many of whom are on the brink of hunger, will be halted in few weeks, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Tuesday.
"The United Nations World Food Programme is today warning that life-saving programmes in Chad will grind to a halt in a matter of weeks without urgent funding," the statement read.
After the eruption of conflict in Sudan about a year ago, over 500,000 Sudanese refugees have sought asylum in Chad, crossing the vast desert border. As a result, Chad has become one of the primary refugee destinations in Africa, hosting a total of over 1 million people.
However, the WFP is facing difficulties in providing food to all individuals, resulting in many of them already skipping meals. Approximately 50% of Sudanese refugee children under the age of five suffer from acute anemia.
"We are in a race against time. The small window to pre-position supplies is closing rapidly and our funding is drying up at this dramatic juncture. We’ve already cut our operations in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, leaving hungry people close to starvation," Pierre Honnorat, WFP's Representative and Country Director in Chad, was quoted in the statement.
The organization further stated that the lifeline supply route connecting Chad to Sudan's Darfur region, where hunger is worsening, is also in jeopardy due to insufficient funding.
By acquiring additional resources, the WFP would be able to strategically place food reserves in advance of the rainy season. This would ensure that refugee populations in Chad, who are often isolated due to impassable rivers, do not face shortages of supplies. The organization is "urgently" requesting $242 million to provide ongoing support for the next six months.
A week ago, the UN body warned that the ongoing conflict in Sudan poses a significant threat of causing the world's worst famine, adding that the crisis has severely disrupted the lives of millions of people in the country.
The WFP estimated earlier that about 18 million people in Sudan are suffering from acute hunger, with five million of them experiencing catastrophic hunger, which is the worst situation before famine.