Chad, a landlocked country in central Africa, grapples with alarming levels of food insecurity and starvation. Approximately 42% of its population lives below the poverty line. Chad ranks as the third hungriest country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Hunger Index.
This has been a crisis years in the making, with 2024 marking the country’s fifth consecutive year of severe food insecurity. In February, the government declared a food security and nutrition emergency.
Chad is experiencing its fifth consecutive year of severe food insecurity with 3.4 million people projected to be unable to meet their basic food and nutrition needs during the lean season, according to the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis. Malnutrition has also reached alarming levels, with approximately 1.4 million cases of acute malnutrition in children under five reported in the country.
Poverty map of Chad
Drivers of Food Insecurity
The main drivers of acute food insecurity in Chad include the continued influx of Sudanese refugees and returning Chadians into the eastern provinces, various conflicts affecting several regions of the country, climate shocks - particularly flooding - high transportation costs, and a sluggish macroeconomic situation resulting from the decline in oil revenues.
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The food security and nutrition situation is worsened by structural and overlapping factors, including the negative impact of conflicts, rising food prices, and climate shocks such as floods and droughts.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has disrupted trade, driven up food prices and led to below-average market supplies, contributing significantly to the severe starvation in Chad. In addition to the extreme poverty faced by its residents, more than 600,000 refugees seeking shelter and security have entered Chad. Already hosting more than one million refugees, the country continues to grapple with widespread hunger and food insecurity despite the substantial refugee influx.
Impact of Climate Change
To get a sense of how much the country has been impacted by climate change, it’s helpful to zoom in on the Lac region, part of the larger Lake Chad Basin. The Lake Chad Basin is home to approximately 45 to 50 million people, roughly the combined population of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio.
The majority of residents are fishermen, farmers, and pastoralists - meaning that their income and food security are both tied to the land and the climate. Since 1963, however, the lake has shrunk by 90% of its original size. Across the Basin, more than 10.6 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 6.2 million who face food insecurity.
Shrinking of Lake Chad from 1963 to 2001
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Weather factors such as declining and more unpredictable rainfall lower Chadian crop yields by a significant amount. Chadian crops are also vulnerable to attacks from insects such as locusts, which flourish in the arid Chadian climate. Due to these insect attacks, not only do Chadian food crops frequently fail, but they also expose Chadian agricultural laborers to further hardship by depriving them of income.
Regional Instability and Displacement
The influx of Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees continues into the eastern provinces. As of July 27, 2025, the number of new refugees arriving from Sudan since April 2023 reached 874,605 people. According to UNHCR, the country now hosts over 2 million forcibly displaced people, including more than 1.4 million refugees, 226,000 IDPs, and 368,000 returnees in the Lake Province from Niger, the Central African Republic, and Sudan, along with a few asylum seekers.
These displaced populations are putting enormous pressure on available resources, creating an oversupply of labor and intense competition with host communities for scarce job opportunities. In the eastern provinces, where the majority of Sudanese refugees are concentrated, price increases are occurring, especially during the ongoing lean season.
Attacks by non-state armed groups in the Lake region continue, albeit at low levels - three attacks since January 2025 - according to ACLED data. These attacks cause population displacement and disrupt livelihoods, market functioning, agricultural activity, and fishing. In the north, rebel group activities along the Libyan border are disrupting cross-border trade flows, affecting market supplies in northern and other provinces.
Furthermore, recurrent intercommunal conflicts have escalated in 2025, spreading to several provinces across the country. According to the International Crisis Group, between 2021 and 2024, such agropastoral conflicts caused over 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries, and continue to disrupt ongoing agricultural activities.
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Economic Factors
Poverty is a major factor in the severity of Chad's food insecurity situation. Chad is one of the poorest countries on the planet, with nearly 9 out of every 10 Chadian citizens living under the poverty line. According to the Human Development Index, Chad is ranked 186th out of 188 countries as of 2017. High levels of poverty, in addition to high food prices as a result of scarcity, make it very difficult for Chadians to purchase food.
Normally, lower inflation suggests increased consumer purchasing power, but in Chad’s context, this is not evident due to the population’s low purchasing power. According to the World Bank, the extreme poverty rate is expected to increase by 1.2 percentage points, reaching 40.6 percent in 2025, or an additional 500,000 people living in extreme poverty. Livelihoods have continued to erode, especially in areas affected by insecurity (Lake Chad), flooding, and the massive influx of refugees in the East.
Humanitarian Efforts and Initiatives
However, several organizations are actively working to tackle food insecurity in Chad.
The World Food Programme
The World Food Programme (WFP) plans to assist 2.5 million people across Chad, including refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees and other vulnerable groups. Between June and August 2024, WFP aims to reach more than one million individuals with food, cash and nutritional advice. The organization also focuses on pregnant and breastfeeding mothers facing food insecurity by providing malnutrition treatments and supporting school children with nutritious meals to help combat hunger and promote education.
WFP focuses on life-saving emergency activities and strengthening the country’s long-term resilience. WFP plans to assist 2.5 million people throughout the country including refugees, IDPs, returnees and other vulnerable people. WFP has increasingly received support from donor and now advocates for maximum flexibility of contributions to respond to multiple crises in the most efficient way.
WFP has been working on innovative and transformative long-term solutions against hunger and is committed to supporting national programmes that strengthen community resilience to crises through social protection and investments in inclusive and resilient food systems.
Since 2018, WFP's integrated resilience programme has reached 787,000 people in 282 villages across 14 regions and has contributed to restoring degraded land for food and fodder production, promoting children's education through school canteens and nutritional assistance, improving food access, and increasing incomes.
Concern Worldwide
Concern Worldwide has addressed food insecurity in Chad by implementing programs designed to enhance livelihoods. These initiatives provide participants the tools to achieve sustainable living, acquire new skills, improve crop yields and nutritional quality and generate income through small businesses. Concern Worldwide’s efforts to build sustainable livelihoods in Chad have reached 62,000 people.
The organization has also provided free health services, improved nutritional support and access to clean and safe drinking water to approximately 133,000 vulnerable individuals and people with disabilities.
Additionally, Concern Worldwide launched the Concerted and Inclusive Development in the Lake Province (DECILAC), a pioneering project supported by Facilité G5 Sahel. This project focuses on inclusively investing in food security, strengthening local value chains, enhancing education and mitigating food insecurity in the Lac province.
Action Against Hunger
This organization has already assisted more than 520,000 people, yet with a staggering 5.5 million people in need in Chad, many continue to struggle with food insecurity. While Action Against Hunger (AGA) provides food to vulnerable populations, the ready-made supplies are only a temporary solution.
To address this issue more sustainably, AGA is teaching communities in Chad how to grow their own crops and manage limited rainfall to enhance local food production.
EU Humanitarian Aid
The EU is one of the main humanitarian aid donors for people in need in Chad. In 2024, we stepped up support with over €85 million in humanitarian aid and allocated an additional €74.5 million in early 2025 to assist those most in need.
In addition to addressing the basic needs of forcibly displaced populations, the EU also responds to sudden emergencies in overcrowded camps and host communities, such as epidemic outbreaks like Hepatitis E or fires destroying shelters and food supplies. EU humanitarian aid focuses on urgent life-saving support, particularly for newly arrived refugees most of whom are women and children, while strengthening their resilience and promoting peaceful coexistence with host communities.
Salmata Mara Mohammed (50) and her family
Despite numerous challenges, including “an unprecedented food emergency,” Concern is working with Chadians across the country to fight hunger with goats, fish, and peanuts (and more).
Salmata with her children and their family's goats
