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Chad Situation Report, 14 Jan 2021

Countries
Chad
Sources
OCHA
Publication date
Origin
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HIGHLIGHTS

  • According to the Harmonized Framework no department was in “crisis phase” even though nearly 600,000 people were identified as being in this phase between October and December 2020

  • A retrospective analysis shows cereal production in steady decline over the past three years.

  • GAM rates above the 15 per cent WHO emergency threshold in eight provinces

  • Providing aid to over a million severely affected populations during the 2021 lean season

  • Gender-based violence, a fundamental and omnipresent problem within Chadian communities which is exacerbated during a time of crisis

Results of the Harmonized Framework analyses

The Government of Chad and its partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), published the results of the Harmonized Framework analyses on the food security and nutrition situation in the country in December 2020.

According to these results, more than 5,600 people were identified in “emergency phase” (phase 4 out of 5) during the October-December 2020 period; this figure is expected to increase tenfold up to 55,000 people during the next lean season, from June to August 2021. These people require humanitarian assistance, including free food aid and animal food supplements as well as activities strengthening nutrition, health, livelihoods and resilience.

No department was declared in “crisis phase” (phase 3 out of 5), even though nearly 600,000 people were identified as being in this phase during the October-December 2020 period. As for phase 2, "under pressure", 28 departments and 2.1 million people are concerned. The situation is expected to worsen during the lean season (June-August 2021), with 14 departments and more than 1.1 million people in the “crisis” or “emergency” phase (phases 3 and 4), requiring a humanitarian intervention, recovery support and strengthening of nutrition, health and livelihoods activities. Ten other departments (bringing the total to 38) are projected to be "under pressure" between June and August 2021, affecting more than 2.8 million people.

The most affected provinces are, among others, Wadi-Fira, Logone Oriental, Lac, Logone Occidental and Kanem. The provinces of the two Logones are seriously affected, with more than 112,000 people concerned (October-December 2020) and 175,000 people during the lean season. However, considering the proportion of food insecure people by province, a significant part of the Sahelian strip as well as the north-west of Chad are the most affected areas.

Climate change and the exceptional floods of 2020 also had an impact on food insecurity: hundreds of thousands of hectares of cultivated land were destroyed, thousands of cattle were washed away, and the stocks of storekeepers in flooded markets were seriously affected. Almost 400,000 people have been affected in one way or another by the recent floods.

Overall, the good news is that these predictions are better than forecast in June 2020 during the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) review. At that time, the impact of COVID-19 was projected to be more extensive. In March 2020, in the context of COVID-19, Chad had taken essential restrictive measures that disrupted the proper functioning of markets and limited income-generating opportunities for many households. These measures included the closing of borders, movement restrictions, and the closing of shops except for those selling agri-food products.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.