Funding gap leaves Sudanese refugees in Chad without basic aid: NRC
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Twenty-three international humanitarian organizations operating in eastern Chad had warned that the majority of refugees and returnees "do not have access to the protection and education assistance they direly need."
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Sudanese refugees arrive in Acre, Chad, on Sunday, October 6, 2024. (AP)
Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad are deprived of essential aid after a UN-led response plan secured only 30% of its required funding for 2024, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) pointed out on Wednesday.
The war in Sudan between the army and its paramilitary adversaries has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced over 12 million people, forcing Sudanese refugees to seek safety in Chad alongside Chadian returnees who were previously displaced due to a terrorist insurgency.
"This is without a doubt the world's largest humanitarian crisis and it does not stop at Sudan's borders," NRC Country Director Dermot Hegarty told AFP.
"There needs to be an upscaling of regional funding mechanisms."
In a statement on Wednesday, the NRC reported that 23 international humanitarian organizations operating in eastern Chad had warned that the majority of refugees and returnees "do not have access to the protection and education assistance they direly need."
"Food assistance fell drastically short of covering their daily needs... (while) the protection and education sectors featured the largest gaps of the emergency response," the statement added.
The $630 million refugee response plan for Chad, developed by the UN in collaboration with international NGOs, represents the estimated amount required by the UN refugee agency to address basic needs.
According to the NRC, nearly one million people have fled into Chad, including more than 720,000 Sudanese refugees and over 220,000 returning Chadians.
The NRC highlighted that nine out of ten are women and children, noting that more than two-thirds of those arriving in Chad have suffered some form of violence, including torture, rape, and sexual slavery.
"Most refugees cross the border with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and an abundance of harrowing stories," indicated Alix Camus, president of an NGO forum collaborating with the NRC and country director of Acted, which provides aid to refugees at a transit site in Adré, near the border.
Camus stressed that many refugees "have to cope with immense trauma," underscoring the urgent need for child protection, education, mental health support, and the treatment and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence.
"Yet, faced with an emergency crisis of this magnitude on the one hand, and scraps of funding on the other, that type of assistance is placed on the backburner," Camus lamented.
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