1.3 Million Sudanese Refugees in Chad Face Cuts to Food, Water and Shelter

Some refugees in eastern Chad are surviving on less than half the minimum daily water requirement, according to the World Food Programme and UNHCR.

The two agencies said this week that more than 1 million Sudanese refugees in Chad face immediate and life-threatening cuts to food, water, shelter, protection and health care unless a $428 million shortfall is filled over the next six months. Chad is hosting 1.3 million Sudanese refugees, they said, with more than 900,000 arriving since Sudan’s war began in 2023.

The agencies said current resources allow basic assistance for only four out of every 10 refugees. They said 80,000 families are without shelter and more than 243,000 people remain stranded in exposed border areas because there is not enough funding to move them inland.

UN News repeated the same warning and said nearly 15,000 new arrivals have entered Chad since the start of 2026. In eastern Chad, where one in three people is now a refugee, the crisis is no longer only about food rations. It is also about whether people sleep in the open, whether clinics can stay staffed and whether water points can keep functioning through the hot season and into the rains.

WFP said it has already cut food assistance in half for the majority of refugees it supports in host areas. The agency said women and young children were being hit first as nutrition support for new arrivals comes under pressure.

In donor statements, this is framed as a funding gap. In French-language UN coverage and African reporting, the emphasis has been sharper: Chad kept its border open while richer governments cut back. The difference is visible in the wording. One frame counts dollars missing. The other counts families sleeping outside before the rainy season.

The geography matters. Many of the people still near the Sudan border have not been relocated to formal settlements further inland. WFP and UNHCR said those 243,000 people face disease, insecurity and harsh weather in rudimentary shelters or in the open. That makes them less protected than refugees already inside better-served sites and more vulnerable if roads deteriorate in coming months.

The agencies linked the crisis directly to international financing decisions. UNHCR said it ended 2025 with only around one-third of the resources needed for the refugee emergency in eastern Chad. WFP said it has less than half the funds it needs. Neither agency described the shortfall as temporary noise. Both warned of deeper cuts in the coming months without urgent support.

The consequences reach beyond the camps. Chad is one of the world’s poorest countries and has continued to receive refugees despite heavy strain on local resources. Aid agencies and the government have been trying to move from emergency support toward resilience and social protection, but WFP said emergency help remains a vital lifeline.

That pressure rarely leads major headlines outside Africa unless it turns into a later migration crisis. The deep-investigation brief for April 11 said this is one of the clearest examples of a systems failure hidden behind larger war coverage. Donor governments are still funding border enforcement, military operations and industrial support elsewhere, the brief noted, while a frontline host state is being asked to absorb the human cost of Sudan’s war with shrinking outside help.

The story is also a health and protection crisis. WFP and UNHCR said overstretched health centers are scaling back services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Education services are buckling as well, with classrooms in most locations holding more than 100 children per teacher.

The next deadline is seasonal as much as financial. Agencies need funds in the next six months to maintain food deliveries, shelter, relocation and water access before rain makes logistics harder and disease risk climbs. Without that money, the cuts already under way will deepen before the third anniversary of Sudan’s war.