WFP funding shortage could halt assistance to 1.4 million Sudanese refugees fleeing Darfur

22 Nov 2023 --- Close to a million and a half refugees escaping persecution in the Darfur region of Sudan and crossing into neighboring Chad could be denied access to vital food and nutrition assistance due to lack of funding for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the organization has warned.

“Global economic headwinds and long-term fiscal tightening mean that many governments and other partners are reducing levels of support for humanitarian operations across the board,” a WFP spokesperson tells Nutrition Insight. ”In Chad, as elsewhere, the gulf between humanitarian needs and funding available to respond has grown steadily.”

Aid organizations based in the African country are struggling to offer adequate support to the newly-arrived refugees fleeing the renewed violence in Darfur, where mass killings, rapes and widespread destruction have been reported. 

“This forgotten crisis has metastasized as the world’s eyes are on other emergencies,” says Pierre Honnorat, WFP’s country director in Chad. “It is staggering, but more Darfuris have fled to Chad in the last six months than in the preceding 20 years. We cannot let the world stand and allow our life-saving operations to grind to a halt in Chad.”

 Chad now hosts one of the largest and fastest-growing refugee populations in Africa. 

Millions of people in Chad already face acute food insecurity and malnutrition, with children being most at risk (Image credit: WFP/Eloge Mbaihondoum).No funding for food 
Millions of people in Chad already face acute food insecurity and malnutrition, with children being most at risk. The ongoing refugee crisis exacerbates the situation and is much grimmer among refugee communities. 

“WFP has already struggled through years of funding cuts in Chad and has provided half rations between 2021 and 2022, with 90% of refugees receiving assistance for just six out of 12 months in 2022,” continues the spokesperson. 

According to the latest Emergency Food Security Assessment conducted in Eastern Chad, 8.6% of children under five are malnourished. Meanwhile, 90% of new arrivals, 77% of pre-existing refugees and 67% of locals report “poor or borderline food consumption”.

“WFP has to abandon its assistance to the moderately hungry (phase 3 'crisis' category in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) and focus assistance only on the most vulnerable. Cutting assistance forces vulnerable people to skip meals and consume less nutritious food. This sows the seeds for crises of nutrition, instability and displacement and jeopardizes years of work fighting hunger and malnutrition.”

Globally, plummeting funding and rising humanitarian assistance needs, owing to renewed conflicts worldwide, have forced the WFP to cease aid to internally displaced people across the region. 

“Acute hunger remains at record levels in today’s post-pandemic world. Yet humanitarian funding has returned to pre-pandemic levels. This means our humanitarian dollar is being stretched to breaking point,” the spokesperson explains.

“In August this year, WFP was only able to assist one million of the 2.3 million it had targeted, leaving 1.3 million without assistance at the peak of the lean season.” Skyrocketing food prices have also contributed to WFP’s inability to stretch its budget further. 

Uncertain future
Starting in January 2024, the lack of funding could affect more than a million Sudanese refugees in Chad (Image credit: WFP/Eloge Mbaihondoum).Starting in January 2024, the suspension of funding is expected to affect close to a million and a half Sudanese refugees in Chad, including new arrivals who will no longer receive food upon arriving in the host country. 

“In the coming weeks, WFP will be forced to suspend assistance to internally displaced people and refugees from Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Cameroon due to funding cuts.”

The WFP recently raised the alarm that more than a million and a half people in neighboring South Sudan are likely to face malnutrition in the first half of 2024 as a result of climate change-linked unprecedented floods.

“The situation is only expected to worsen - the WFP is set to run out of food in January 2024 and will be forced to cut assistance to 1.4 million crisis-affected people across Chad – including new arrivals from Sudan.” 

“We cannot let the world stand by and allow our life-saving operations to grind to a halt in Chad. We urgently need additional funding to meet the rising tide of hunger and malnutrition in Chad and effectively respond to the largest and fastest-growing refugee crisis in Africa,” the spokesperson pleads. 

To ensure the much-needed support to crisis-affected people in Chad over the next six months, the WFP urgently requires US$185 million.

By Milana Nikolova