Geneva 15 sep (EFE).-Chad is facing a humanitarian crisis “of dramatic proportions” by growing food insecurity caused by low rainfall, the cholera epidemic and the mass of thousands of migrants from Libya. return
This was stated today at a press conference in Geneva the humanitarian coordinator of the UN in Chad, Thomas Gurtner, who emphasized, however, the progress made on security in the past two years and the willingness of the authorities of the country to attend the population more needed.
The area most affected by food insecurity in the region of the Sahel, where nearly 1.5 million people are malnourished and severe acute child malnutrition rate reached 20%.
Gurtner said it is expected that these encrypted to increase in the coming months due to low rainfall despite the onset of the rainy season, which will mean a decline in agricultural production and an increase in the prices of food
In addition, the return of emigrants from Libya implies pressure much higher in the region of the Sahel, since over half of the 80,000 people who have returned to Chad during the Libyan conflict came from this area.
Gurtner clarified that the food crisis does not reach the levels of the Horn of Africa because several of the UN agencies have 18 months working in the country, where they have created 200 supplementary feeding centres and have managed to maintain the levels of malnutrition.
“However, are still not in a position to reduce them, only to contain them, which is why we consider it important that humanitarian aid does not cease until at least 2012 so that the situation does not reach the dramatic levels of the Horn of Africa”, pointed out.
Another problem of Chad, located among the five poorest in the world, is the cholera epidemic unprecedented who lives at the moment, with a few affected and 400 13,500 dead, and scarce response capacity by the lack of medical infrastructure limited workforce and poor infrastructures for water and sanitation in the country.
“There has been a cholera epidemic such since 1991, which resulted in 14,000 affected, almost the same as now, with the difference that it is expected that the number of patients exceeds the 15,000 to advance of the rainy season”, explained Gurtner.
Also there is cholera outbreaks in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.
Humanitarian coordinator of the UN in Chad stressed that the group most vulnerable to these problems are nearly 180,000 internally displaced persons in the country, as a result of the internal conflict between 2007 and 2009.
In addition to internally displaced persons in Chad live some 250,000 refugees from Darfur and 130,000 from the Central African Republic, which, however, live in camps a little better equipped with water and sanitation services to live in which the displaced persons.
To assist these vulnerable populations, FAO made a November of last year an emergency appeal to donors of $ 50 million, of which, he said Gurtner, not been raised in all this time “not a penny”.
“It is essential that the international community is aware of the humanitarian crisis of tragic proportions that live Chad in a few months if we do not act now,” stressed. EFE
