More than one million Sudanese refugees in Chad are facing an escalating humanitarian crisis as severe funding shortages force UN agencies to cut life-saving assistance. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have warned that essential support for food, water, shelter, protection, and healthcare will be drastically reduced in the coming months unless a US$428 million funding gap is urgently addressed.
Chad has become one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the region, sheltering around 1.3 million Sudanese refugees, with over 900,000 arriving since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan in 2023. The country’s eastern regions are under extreme pressure, with one in every three people now a refugee. Despite limited resources, the Government of Chad has kept its borders open, and new arrivals continue to be recorded, further stretching already overwhelmed systems.
Humanitarian conditions in refugee settlements remain critical. Current funding allows UNHCR to support only about 40 percent of refugees with basic assistance, leaving many without adequate shelter, clean water, or healthcare. Tens of thousands of families are without proper housing, water access is far below minimum standards in some areas, and health facilities are severely overstretched. Protection services, including support for survivors of gender-based violence, are being reduced, while overcrowded schools are struggling to meet the needs of displaced children.
Thousands of refugees remain stranded in eastern border areas due to insufficient funding to relocate them to safer inland settlements. Many are forced to live in unsafe, makeshift conditions exposed to disease, insecurity, and harsh weather, further increasing their vulnerability.
UN officials have warned that the situation reflects the human cost of global funding shortfalls. They noted that aid levels entering 2026 are already far below what is required, and without urgent donor support, conditions will deteriorate further, deepening suffering among displaced families who have already escaped conflict in Sudan.
The World Food Programme has also been heavily affected, operating with less than half the required resources. It currently provides food assistance to over a million people but has been forced to cut rations for most refugees. Women and children are among the most affected, with nutrition programmes for new arrivals under increasing strain.
While both UNHCR and WFP are investing in longer-term solutions such as resilience-building and social protection, they stressed that emergency assistance remains essential. Aid officials are calling for immediate international funding to prevent further deterioration and to ensure continued support for refugees in Chad, emphasizing that global responsibility-sharing is urgently needed as the crisis intensifies.
