Hunger crisis threatens Chad amid lack of funding

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that food aid for 1.4 million people in Chad faces a “looming halt” because there is no money, even as the country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Funding shortfalls and increasing humanitarian needs mean WFP will have to pause food for millions of displaced people and refugees in Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon from December, the agency said.

From January the suspension will be extended to Chad, a “brutal” decision that will affect “new arrivals from Sudan who will not receive food as they flee across the border”, a WFP statement said.

Nearly half a million Sudanese have crossed into Chad since the outbreak of the military conflict in April sent the country into war. More than 90% of these refugees already do not have enough to eat, according to a recent assessment.