Chad continues to experience a prolonged humanitarian crisis with nearly a third of the population in need of humanitarian aid. Armed conflict, displacement, food insecurity and health emergencies remain the main drivers of human needs. Since the outbreak of armed conflict in Sudan on April 15, 2023, the humanitarian situation has worsened with the influx of thousands of people in eastern Chad, including Wadi-Fira, Sila and Ouadda.
Chad faces multiple emergencies and crises that have lowered the Global Hunger Index to an alarming level (121 from 117 countries). according to the INFORM Risk Index 2023, Chad is most at risk, with weak socioeconomic indicators, gender inequality, limited access to basic social services, and a food and nutrition crisis of 5. the country (between 190 countries).
The influx of people to Chad also has a negative impact on the social, economic and environmental contexts of the host population, to receive communities under pressure due to the sharing of natural resources and basic social services, as well as the disruption of supply routes to markets. In July 2023, food insecurity actors reported that as part of a temporary Harmonized Framework exercise, 2.1 million people living in Chad were in the Phase 3+ food crisis, 10% who is in an emergency. This 300,000 increase is expected to continue in 2024.
South Chad also continues to experience armed violence due to the worsening security situation resulting in inter-communal conflicts and attacks by armed groups in the Central African Republic. 38,764 people were displaced and returned. These security incidents targeting civilians resulting in ambush, animal theft and other livelihoods are expected to continue in 2024. These displaced people sought refuge in makeshift shelters and community centers (schools, churches, public places) that required immediate assistance.
In other regions, protection incidents continue to be reported, including murders, physical assaults, abductions, looting, swaddling, property theft, etc, cases of gender-based violence and other types of violence not recorded due to the lack of a protection monitoring mechanism in the field.
The situation in the Lac region northwest of Chad continues to be related to repeated attacks by non-state armed groups on villages that target civilians and force the population to move. The Conservation Cluster in Lac province has reported a significant increase in conservation incidents since July, with only 137 incidents that month, 336 representing a significant increase in the first six months of the year the event was recorded.
The results of the population movement monitoring analysis published by IOM in June 2023 revealed the presence of 215,000 internally displaced persons, while 54,601 IDPs were reported in the last three months. The government and the humanitarian community will implement a pilot-resistant solutions project targeting IDPs in the Lac region in 2024.
The chronically long-standing humanitarian situation in Chad is expected to worsen in 2024 due to the cumulative effects of continued large refugee and Sudanese repatriation flows, population displacement due to intercommunal conflicts in the South and a long-term displacement crisis in the Lac province.
The increase in the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity and malnutrition of epidemics, insufficient availability of basic social services, etc, the fragile political transition and the impacts of climate change and flood risks also contribute significantly to the bad outlook for the coming year. Low funding in Chad remains the biggest challenge for quality humanitarian response. Over the past five years, the average funding coverage has been 50 percent. Eleven months into the year, only 27 percent of the US$921 million needed for the 2023 were upgraded.
Human intervention for 2024 will be carried out with the understanding that many of the humanitarian challenges in the country are linked to long-standing structural problems. Given the scarcity of funding, humanitarian actors will certainly strengthen their orientation to life-saving humanitarian actions towards the most vulnerable people in the most affected areas, by geographically prioritizing their interventions by implementing JIAF 2.0 analyses.
This approach assumes that development partners can expand their support to provide essential services and protect livelihoods. Human partners will continue to apply the nexus approach to enable a transition to more emergency development approaches.
Chad continues to face a protracted and multidimensional humanitarian crisis; by 2023, 7.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance had reached 6 million. Intercommunal and intra-communal conflicts, insecurity in some neighboring countries and the effects of climate change (flood and flooding, drought) are causing the population to displace forcibly. It aggravates food and nutritional insecurity and leads to health-related emergencies.
On January 1, 2024, about 2.9 million people in Chad experienced severe food shortages. Chad is home to about 1.4 million refugees affected by the conflict in Sudan, making it one of the five countries with the most refugees in the world. There are also about 260,000 Chadis that have returned to the country.
A multi-sector common need analysis conducted in October 2023 showed that from 2024, out of 6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 4.6 million would be provided in at least one of the priority sectors. The provinces of Ouaddai, Lac, Wadi Fira, Salamat, Moyen-Chari, Ennedi Est, Ennedi Ouest and Barh-El-Gazel are in a serious cross-sectoral fragility phase.
To provide adequate emergency assistance to the most vulnerable sections of the population, humanitarian partners will need about 1.125 billion US dollars. The sectoral intervention of the international community will be coordinated by the Multisectoral Intervention of Clusters and Refugees at the national and state level, in support of the Government, who remains the first to intervene in the humanitarian crisis.
YAZAN: Vildan Kabasakal
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://crisisresponse.iom.int/response/chad-crisis-response-plan-2024
https://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/article/chad-1
https://www.unocha.org/anticipatory-action
https://www.globalhungerindex.org/chad.html
https://2022.gho.unocha.org/chad/