UN urges donors to provide $200 million for over 500,000 displaced in Chad

The United Nations today called for an additional $200 million to provide aid to more than half a million people uprooted by violence in Chad and the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) and Darfur region of western Sudan, as demand mounts for humanitarian assistance.

“People in eastern and southern Chad still require considerable help from the international community as they attempt to cope with the effects of displacement and in some cases to rebuild their lives,” said Eliane Duthoit, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Chad.

To date, just over 50 per cent of the $389 million originally requested in the 2009 Consolidated Appeals Process for Chad has been received, including $2 million from the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support 17,000 refugees from the CAR and 5,000 members of communities hosting them.

Chad hosts a total of 340,000 refugees from CAR and Sudan and 171,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), OCHA said in a news release, adding that funds are required for the second half of the year to support 86 proposed humanitarian projects submitted by nine UN agencies and 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

OCHA said that IDPs have begun returning home in the east of the country and will need the support of the Government and aid agencies to rebuild their lives this year.