ABUJA, Nigeria, 21 Nov (AP) \u2014 Food assistance to 1.4 million refugees in Chad who fled the conflict in parts of the Sahel could end because of limited funding, the United Nations food agency warned Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Most of the refugees escaped the war in Sudan and crossed into Chad in the last six months in numbers not seen in the last 20 years, the U.N.\u2019s World Food Program said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis forgotten crisis has metastasized as the world\u2019s eyes are on other emergencies \u2026 We cannot let the world stand and allow our life-saving operations grind to a halt in Chad,\u201d said Pierre Honnorat, WFP\u2019s country director in Chad.<\/p>\n
Sudan plunged into conflict in April when long-simmering tensions escalated between the country\u2019s military and the rival Rapid Support Forces, resulting in the death of more than 5,000 people and displacement of at least 5.2 million people amid reports of mass killings, rapes, and widespread destruction, according to the U.N.<\/p>\n
Many of the displaced found their way to neighboring Chad, piling pressure on the already impoverished country as it becomes host to one of the largest and fastest-growing refugee populations in Africa, the WFP said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollectively we must find a way to support the women, children and men who are bearing the full brunt of this crisis. Cutting our assistance is simply not an option because it will have untold consequences for millions of people, jeopardizing years of investment in fighting hunger and malnutrition in Chad,\u201d Honnorat said.<\/p>\n
The WFP said that malnutrition is a major concern, with nine in 10 new arrivals reporting \u201cpoor or borderline food consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honnorat said the WFP urgently needs $185 million to continue its support to crisis-affected populations in Chad over the next six months. In the absence of that funding, he said, the agency is being forced to make \u201cbrutal choices\u201d to prioritize certain needs and groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn December, WFP will be forced to suspend assistance to internally displaced people and refugees from Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Cameroon due to insufficient funds,\u201d Honnorat said. \u201cFrom January this suspension will be extended to 1.4 million people across Chad \u2013 including new arrivals from Sudan who will not receive food as they flee across the border.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABUJA, Nigeria, 21 Nov (AP) \u2014 Food assistance to 1.4 million refugees in Chad who fled the conflict in parts of the Sahel could end because of limited funding, the United Nations food agency warned Tuesday. Most of the refugees escaped the war in Sudan and crossed into Chad in the last six months in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-228982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}