A United Nations agency announced on Tuesday that it will suspend its food assistance program for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan in April, due to a lack of international funding.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued a call for donations amounting to $242 million to continue aiding 1.2 million Sudanese refugees. The impending rainy season threatens to block the routes used by humanitarian aid convoys in eastern Chad, complicating the delivery of assistance.
Pierre Honnora, the WFP director in Chad, emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating, “We are in a race against time.” The WFP has already made inconceivable reductions in its operations, leaving many on the brink of starvation.
Honnora highlighted the need for donors to prevent the situation from turning into a total disaster. Western Sudan has not yet recovered from the effects of conflicts that began in 2003 when war erupted in April between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, causing widespread violence.
The recent violence has displaced approximately 8 million people within Sudan, in addition to more than 400,000 refugees who had previously fled to Chad between 2003 and 2020. Before the latest conflict, the WFP was providing assistance to 1.4 million refugees in Chad from neighboring country conflicts.
However, the agency is now forced to “suspend for months” its assistance to the majority of refugees from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria. Over 559,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad, which has also seen the return of 150,000 Chadians since the latest outbreak of violence, making it one of the “fastest-growing refugee populations in Africa.”
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council called for a ceasefire in Sudan during the month of Ramadan, as the conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths. In February, Chad’s transitional president, Mohamed Idriss Deby Itno, declared a “food emergency” throughout the country.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has led to a devastating humanitarian crisis. The violence erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the command of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”. This conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions. As of late 2023, there have been over 13,000 to 15,000 reported fatalities, with more than 1.6 million people displaced within the country or fleeing across borders. Efforts for peace, including multiple ceasefire agreements, have faltered, with each side violating truces.
The situation has been particularly dire in the Darfur region, where the RSF has made significant advances, displacing the SAF from several bases. This has led to fears of potential high civilian casualties, especially in areas with large populations of internally displaced persons, such as El Fasher in North Darfur. The violence is not only contained in Darfur but also persists in Khartoum and other regions, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.