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| April 16, 2008 |
14 Apr 2008
Chad: Low humanitarian funding in 2008, assistance to half million at risk
(New York / Geneva / N'Djamena: 14 April 2008): Over three months into 2008, this year's Humanitarian Appeal for Chad, launched last December in the context of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), has received only 18% of the requested funding.
"We are still hopeful that donors will respond generously to this appeal," said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). "But if funding trends do not significantly improve in the coming months, this could have devastating consequences for nearly half a million people who heavily rely on humanitarian assistance for their survival," he added.
The 2008 Appeal currently requests US$ 290 million, for 70 humanitarian projects proposed by 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and eight United Nations entities. Total funding of US$ 51 million has so far been received.
Contributors to this year's appeal include Canada, the Republic of Finland, Ireland, Japan, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Norway, the Swiss Confederation, and the United States of America.
Chad hosts over 250,000 refugees from the Sudan, and over 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled internal conflict in the east. There are also more than 57,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) in the south.
In the east, the vast majority of refugee and IDP households are heavily reliant on humanitarian aid for their survival.
"Should our life-saving operations ever be interrupted, whether due to lack of funding or to insecurity, the current crisis would seriously deteriorate within a short period of time", said Solofo Ramaroson, head of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) field office in Chad's eastern town of Abéché.