The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | UNHCR , UNITED NATIONS , WFP
Bi-Weekly Press Briefing: Appeal For Refugees In Chad WFP - UNHCR
Chad: aid for displaced desperately needed to avoid hunger
A dire lack of humanitarian funding has left hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people in Chad facing hunger in the coming months, UN agencies said on Friday.
Speaking from Ndjamena, Pierre Honnorat, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Chad, said that as the country moves into the lean season in-between harvests, food assistance could grind to a complete halt.
“Chad is surrounded by countries with crises and hosting some 600,000 refugees from Sudan, Niger, Cameroon and Central African Republic. It’s one of the biggest caseloads in Africa. And the number kept rising with the recent conflict in the communities in Sudan,” Mr. Honnorat told reporters in Geneva.
An additional 300,000 people in need of aid are internally displaced Chadians.
WFP said that after fleeing conflict and violence, refugees, internally displaced people and their host communities face growing food insecurity and malnutrition, high food prices and the destructive effects of climate change. In the second half of 2022, the country saw the most devastating floods in 30 years.
Mr. Honnorat flagged that last year, some 90 per cent of refugees in Chad did not receive adequate food assistance and rations had to be cut in half.
He warned that “2023 is another very difficult year, whereby we have absolutely no funding from May onwards for the refugees and the displaced people.”
WFP has already reduced its support in April and will only be able to serve just over 270,000 refugees this month.
To avoid food assistance coming to a complete halt and to “put food on the table of all crisis-affected populations” in Chad, WFP urgently needs additional funding of $142.7 million for the coming six months.
Mr. Honnorat called on donors to help the government of Chad “in their efforts to host so many refugees with so many crises at the same time” while emphasizing the upcoming “very difficult” lean season. WFP projects that nearly 1.9 million people will be in severe food insecurity from June to August 2023, while more than 1.3 million children will suffer from acute malnutrition.
According to the UN agency, other disastrous impacts of the crisis could include a rise in child labour, under-aged marriage and recruitment into armed groups.
Echoing the call for urgent action, Matthew Saltmarsh from UN refugee agency (UNHCR) also appealed to the international community to help tackle the crisis.
“For our part of the appeal, we're looking to raise $172.5 million to provide protection and relief assistance to the one million forcibly displaced people and their hosts”, he said, adding that UNHCR’s appeal was, for now, only 15 per cent funded.
Speaking about longer-term solutions to the crisis, including development interventions, Mr. Honnorat highlighted a new project which WFP was running together with UNHCR and the Chadian agriculture ministry, to promote empowerment and self-reliance among the displaced by enabling them to become farmers and live off the land.
“We have just rehabilitated 1,600 hectares of land, which have already produced 2,900 tonnes of food”, he said, stressing that the return on investment of the operation is “fantastic” and that most importantly, 16 villages now no longer require assistance.
Mr. Honnorat went on to underscore that in his 33 years at WFP, he had rarely seen development projects as “solid” as in Chad and praised the efforts of the government in favour of the refugees, including ongoing work on a new asylum law, which should be finalized soon.
STORY: Appeal for Refugees in Chad - WFP - UNHCR
TRT: 2’31”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH, FRENCH, NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
RELEASE DATE: 14 April 2023
FORMAT: HYBRID PRESS BRIEFING
DATELINE: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: UN flag alley UN Geneva.
- Cutaway: wide shot, speakers behind podium at the press conference, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad: “Chad is surrounded by countries with crises and hosting some 600,000 refugees from Sudan, Niger, Cameroon and Centrafrique [Central African Republic]. It’s one of the biggest caseloads in Africa. And the number kept rising with the recent conflict in the communities in Sudan.”
- Cutaway: close-up lateral shot, journalists at the press conference, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad: “2023 is another very difficult year whereby we have absolutely no funding from May onwards for the refugees and the displaced people.”
- Cutaway: medium lateral shot, speaker behind podium, journalists at the press conference, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad: “Today, an appeal to help the government of Chad to support them in their efforts to host so many refugees with so many crises at the same time, in the current context. And again, I was mentioning the upcoming very difficult lean season that we are looking at and the urgent need for WFP for the next six months of the $140 million.”
- Cutaway: medium lateral shot, journalists at the press conference, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson, UNHCR: “For our part of the appeal we're looking to raise $172.5 million to provide protection and relief assistance to the one million forcibly displaced people and their hosts that we've heard about so far. For our part, that is just 15 per cent funded, so we desperately need money for that country and for that situation.”
- Cutaway: close-up, journalists typing at the press conference, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (FRENCH) Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director, Chad: “On vient de réhabiliter 1,600 hectares de terres qui ont déjà produit 2,900 tonnes de vivres. Ça, c’est dans la région des Lacs. On avait investi $2.2 millions et rien que ces 2,900 tonnes sont équivalentes à $1 million. C’est-à-dire qu’on a un retour sur investissement qui est fantastique, mais on a surtout des populations qui n’ont plus besoin d’aide. Ce sont 16 villages qui travaillent sur ces 1,600 hectares, qui n’ont plus besoin d’aide.”
- Various cutaways of journalists and speakers in the press conference room.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.