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Current Requirements (US$)$1.12 billion
Crisis overview and projections
Chad continues to experience a protracted humanitarian crisis, with nearly a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance. Armed conflict, internal displacement, food insecurity and health emergencies continue to be the main drivers of humanitarian needs. The challenging socioeconomic situation is also having a severe impact on the most vulnerable people. The humanitarian situation has worsened since the outbreak of armed conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, with the influx of thousands of people into eastern Chad, particularly in the Ouaddaï, Wadi-Fira and Sila provinces. By 16 October 2023, 442,250 refugees and 77,320 Chadian returnees had arrived. With the worsening security situation in Darfur, an estimated 250,000 refugees are expected in 2024. The new caseload of refugees joins more than 598,000 refugees and other asylum-seekers who have already been living in Chad for several years Chad is now one of the seven countries receiving the largest number of refugees in the world, with 1,033,180 refugees as of 16 October 2023.
The influx of vulnerable people into Chad is also having a negative impact on the host populations' social, economic, and environmental contexts, with receiving 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, as part of an ad-hoc Harmonized Framework exercise, noted that 2.1 million people living in Chad are in a Phase 3+ food crisis, 10% of whom are in emergency (IPC Phase 4). This is an increase of 300,000 and is expected to continue in 2024.
Southern Chad also continues to experience armed violence due to local inter-communal conflicts and the deteriorating security situation in the Central African Republic which has resulted in incursions by armed groups. 38,764 people have been displaced and returned. These security incidents, targeting civilians that have resulted in ambushes, theft of livestock and other subsistence goods, are expected to continue in 2024. These displaced people found refuge in makeshift shelters and community centers (schools, churches, public places) requiring emergency assistance. In several other localities, protection incidents continue to be reported, including murders/homicides, physical assaults, kidnappings, looting, arson, theft of property, cases of gender-based violence and other types of violence not recorded due to the lack of a protection monitoring mechanism on the ground.
Bol, Lac Province, Chad
A student stands at the blackboard of the ‘Ecole Coranique Rénovée’, part of a UNICEF – Ministry of National Education programme that aims to retain children in school.
UNICEF/Frank DejonghThe situation in the Lac region of northwest Chad also remains concerning, with repeated incursions into villages by non-state armed groups targeting civilians and forcing the population to move. The Protection Cluster in the Lac province has reported a significant increase in protection incidents since July with 137 incidents alone in that month, representing a significant increase on the first six months of the year, when 336 incidents were 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 have been reported in the last three months. The Government and humanitarian community will implement a pilot durable solutions project targeting IDPs in the Lac region in 2024. The chronically protracted humanitarian situation in Chad is expected to worsen in 2024 due to the cumulative impacts of the on-going massive influx of refugees and returnees from Sudan, population displacements due to intercommunal conflicts in the South and the protracted displacement crisis in the Lac province. The increase in the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity and malnutrition resurgence of epidemic diseases, poor availability of basic social services, fragile political transition and the impacts of climate change and risks of floods are also significantly contributing to the poor outlook for the coming year. Under-funding remains the major challenge for quality humanitarian response in Chad. Over the past five years, the average funding coverage was 50 per cent. Eleven months into the year, only 27 per cent of the US$921 million needed for 2023 has been raised.
For 2024, the humanitarian response will be carried out with an understanding that many humanitarian challenges in the country are linked to longstanding structural issues. Given the scarcity of funding, humanitarian actors will reinforce their orientation of strictly lifesaving humanitarian actions towards the most vulnerable people in the most affected areas, by prioritizing their interventions geographically through applying the JIAF 2.0 analyses.
This approach assumes that development partners will be able to expand their support for the provision of basic services and the protection of livelihoods. Humanitarian partners will continue to apply the nexus approach to ensure a transition to more emergency development approaches.
Metché camp, Eastern Chad:
UNHCR and IRC truck drinking water to the camp.
UNHCR/Aristophane NgargouneResponse priorities in 2024
From January to September 2023, humanitarian actors in Chad were able to provide vital humanitarian assistance to over 1,3 million people or approximately 34% of the annual target in the revised HRP. According to field assessments, humanitarian aid remains the only safe option for communities in need, however, the level of assistance falls short of what is required in most instances with significant gaps in many sectors. In the South, humanitarian actors were unable to respond to the needs following inter-communal conflict. The response in the east to the refugee’s crisis remains massively underfunded while in the Lac province, a lack of assistance has forced populations to flee to Niger. Food and nutritional insecurity are also a growing concern with massive gaps in assistance.
In 2024, humanitarian actors will place emergency assistance and multi-sector protection for the most vulnerable at the heart of their interventions. The response will be concentrated in the humanitarian priority zones 1 and 2 identified by the ICC and adopted by the EHP to better target the most affected people. For priority 3 areas, the focus will be on improved collaboration with development actors. Out of approximately 5.8 million estimated to need humanitarian assistance, 4.6 million will be targeted for assistance. Approximately 84 per cent of the people targeted (3,86 million people), will receive emergency assistance to save their lives and preserve their dignity (strategic objective 1). In addition, the humanitarian community will support 4,5 million people to improve access to basic social services (strategic objectives 2), while resilience and early recovery (strategic 3) will be fund-raised for separately.
Lake Chad Province, Chad
A displaced woman carries the non-food items she received from IOM.
IOMIn 2024, humanitarian action will continue to focus on three strategic objectives defined by the Humanitarian Country Team and aligned with country strategic documents. The strategic objectives for 2024 have been revised and a multi-year humanitarian strategy will be developed to align with the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2024-26. Humanitarian actors will continue to reinforce the importance of protection, gender equality and accountability to affected populations, focusing on community-based approaches and detailed data collection to anticipate emergencies. It will remain essential to maintain emergency preparedness, response, and risk reduction measures to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of climate change.
Additionally, working closely with the Government of Chad, an Emergency Development Response approach will be adopted to the crisis in the East, to ensure the sustainable development initiatives are introduced as soon as possible to both strengthen the humanitarian response and ensure the structural and social changes required to transition to development initiatives. This will be worked towards in all of Chad and particularly in the response in eastern Chad (provinces of Ouaddaï, Sila and Wadi Fira) and will include framing the enabling/contributing factors for an emergency development response, such as the need for flexible funding, programming that targets underlying vulnerabilities and complements the ongoing humanitarian response, expanded community based/led development. This approach is needed by the fact that Chad does not receive enough official development assistance (ODA). In fact, in 2021, Chad received just US$ 722.2 million, while the world average for the same year, based on 134 countries, was US$ 973.45 million. This situation becomes even more glaring when we look at ODA per capita. Chad receives US$42 per person, very low compared to neighboring countries with more than US$60 per person.