Chad

Landlocked & Starving

The people of Chad are among the most affected by the global climate crisis and face one of the highest levels of hunger in the world.
WFP/Evelyn Fey/2021

Displacement Crisis

Chad is experiencing a new wave of refugees crossing the border following the violent conflict that erupted in neighboring Sudan on April 15, 2023. These new arrivals add to the tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees already sheltering in eastern Chad after fleeing from previous conflicts.

In total, Chad hosts 1.3 million refugees – more than any other country in Africa.

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woman in red and orange shirt sitting in wooden home WFP/Evelyn Fey/2021
Make a difference in Chad

Hunger Stats

Chad is home to one of the largest and fastest-growing refugee populations in Africa. Since the war in Sudan began, over 700,000 refugees and returnees have crossed into Chad. They rely on humanitarian assistance to survive.

WFP’s Work in Chad

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has worked in Chad since 1968. Today, WFP focuses on providing emergency food assistance and strengthening Chad’s long-term food security.
People receive food assistance in Sudan
Emergency Response
Under its emergency response, WFP plans to assist 2 million people across Chad including refugees, IDPs and host communities.
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Mariam poses for a photograph in an empty classroom at her school in a refugee camp in Chad. A school feeding program is implemented at the school by WFP and its implementing partner SECADEV. Mariam has received a take-home ration of 10,000 CFA from WFP as a reward for 80% attendance in class, which she has used to buy books and clothes for school. It has also allowed the family to re-enroll her in school. Mariam says that she wants to become a teacher to help her sisters and brothers, and others in the refugee camp, like she was helped.

This refugee camp in Chad is home to over 9000 refugees. Before WFP’s intervention, the school counted 1273 students; following the implementation of the school meals the primary school now hosts 1704 students. WFP and its partners have provided support in the form of rice, legumes, oil and salt for school meals for all students, as well as take-home rations for girls with regular attendance and a scholarship of excellence for the top performing students. In addition, in 2021, WFP provided equipment and seeds for a community-run garden where parents of school children grow and harvest sorghum and groundnut to complement the school meals at the school. The community is now able to use seeds from this year's crop yield to sow for the coming season. WFP has also provided a local breeder with goats, which are either to be used for meat in school meals or sold to generate income for the school. 

In Chad, over 228 000 students across 569 schools benefit from daily nutritious meals. The school meals program in Chad prioritizes pre-adolescent and adolescent girls, which has had significant impact. The average pass rate for girls in WFP-assisted schools is 2.5x higher than the national average. However, the funding situation for the school meals program remains critical. WFP needs USD 10,6 million for 2023 to sustain operations and expand the coverage of home-grown school feeding in Chad.
School Meals
WFP plans to provide school meals to over 400,000 children this year. The program has helped keep girls in school and boosted their pass rates.
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In this picture, you can see rice growing at the sides of the dam. More water allows for diverse agricultural activities throughout the year. 
This dam allows the community to harvest water for agriculture, drinking water and their cattle. At the same time, the dam protects the nearby villages from floods during the rainy season.

Through FFA activities, WFP supported the community in rehabilitating a dam. Finalized in 2021, it enables 700 households to grow rice and vegetables, provides water for livestock, and recharges the water table downstream where fruit orchards and village wells are located. With the gradual recession of water after the rainy season, additional arable land will be available for production.
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More than half of the population in the Sahel lives on agriculture and pastoralism. Major droughts across the Sahel are threatening their lives and livelihoods. Through water harvesting techniques, WFP supports communities to maximize the use of rainfall for better access to more water. This means improved options to grow nutritious foods and make a better living. 

Since the beginning of the scale-up in 2018, together with the communities and partners, we rehabilitated nearly 109,000 hectares of degraded land, created 1,850 hectares of gardens to produce fresh vegetables and fruits, and built more than 1,160 ponds, almost 480 wells and 185 boreholes to enhance access to water. Chad is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. The country is affected by desertification, land degradation and extreme weather. On top, the region’s insecurity drives internal and external population movements. With over 500,000 people, Chad hosts the largest refugee population in the Sahel. Another 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in the Lake Chad area.


The effects of climate change and conflict exacerbate each other. Both exacerbate hunger and poverty. People compete for increasingly scarce resources. To brea
Resilience Work
WFP works with communities to rebuild assets including warehouses for farmers’ crops and dams to retain water for irrigation.
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Prepositioned Food
Prepositioning food is essential to keeping cross-border operations into Sudan up-and-running. WFP also needs to preposition food before the rainy seasons start in and heavy rains cut off road access in the east.
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woman in red and orange shirt sitting in wooden home
Nutrition
WFP supports children and pregnant and breastfeeding women through its malnutrition prevention and treatment programs. This year, WFP aims to reach 1.4 million children under 5 and women with nutrition support.
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Nigeria, Monguno, 21 January 2017

Coupled with the existing challenges of extreme poverty, underdevelopment and climate change in the Lake Chad region, Boko Haram violence has led to one of the most acute and sorely neglected humanitarian crises in the world.

Some 7.1 million people need food assistance across four countried - Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Famine looms for over 120,000 people in the areas most affected by crisis in north-east Nigeria.

As malnutrition rises to alarming levels in all four countries, over half a million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

In north-eastern Nigeria alone, some 1.9 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict and insecurity. Almost 200,000 refugees from Nigeria are registered in neighbouring countries - finding shelter within host communities who were already among the poorest in the world.

In the photo: during a Rapid Response Mission (RRM) to Monguno, WFP distributed food to 78,000 people. Here, members of the WFP RRM team disembark the helicopter.

Photo: WFP/Amadou Baraze
Logistics
WFP manages UNHAS, which is critical for transporting humanitarian and development assistance across Chad. In 2023, UNHAS transported 143,300 pounds of cargo and conducted 60 medical evacuations.
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Lastest News

WFP Kicks off Major Lean Season Response in West Africa Amid Dwindling Funding for Humanitarian Operations