WFP responds to emergency food needs of the new Cameroonian refugees streaming into Chad
NDJAMENA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is providing emergency food assistance to about 100,000 newly-arrived Cameroonian refugees in Chad who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance after being forced to flee their homes due to inter-communal conflicts in north-eastern Cameroon.
Starting on 05 December, tens of thousands of Cameroonian refugees have been fleeing inter-communal conflicts in north-eastern Cameroon to find refuge in the Chadian city of N’Djamena and the neighbouring prefectures of Mandelia and Koundoul. From 30,000 people registered in the first week of December, the number has now grown to 104,000 men, women and children hosted in 33 sites. A rapid assessment carried out by WFP and partners revealed that the refugees were forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs and are in dire need of food assistance to survive.
“With the number of refugees rising every day, we need to act quickly to ensure that families have access to food. We need urgent funding to provide life-saving food assistance to these families,” said Claude Jibidar, WFP Representative and Country Director in Chad.
- On 11 December 2021, less than a week after the arrival of the first wave of the refugees in Chad, WFP distributed nutrient-dense High Energy Biscuits (HEB) to 19,000 vulnerable mothers and children in the urban sites of Farcha and Ngueli.
- To date, WFP has assisted approximately 80,000 people with emergency food assistance (cereals, pulses and vegetable oil) across 28 sites in N’Djamena, Koundoul, and Mandelia. However, funding shortages have forced WFP to provide just 50 percent of the standard daily food rations to these people.
- WFP urgently requires US$14 million to provide life-saving assistance to the Cameroonian refugees over the next six months.
- In addition to Cameroonian refugees, in Chad, WFP is also providing assistance to more than 500,000 refugees from Central African Republic, Nigeria and Sudan, as well as 234,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 862,000 food insecure people affected by the climate crisis.
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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.
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