Sudan: The world's biggest humanitarian crisis | DW Documentary

Key Concepts

• Humanitarian Aid Funding: The global decline in financial support for refugee crises, leading to service cuts.
• WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene): Essential infrastructure (latrines, boreholes, water trucking) required to prevent disease outbreaks.
• Cholera: A waterborne, life-threatening infectious disease spreading in camps due to poor sanitation and lack of clean water.
• Hagina Projects: A self-sufficiency framework involving small-scale farming and water-retention dams to reduce dependency on external aid.
• Geopolitical Destabilization: The strategic influence of Russia and China in the Sahel, and the risk of mass migration to Europe if regional stability collapses.

1. The Humanitarian Crisis in Eastern Chad

Eastern Chad currently hosts over 1.2 million refugees, with more than 850,000 fleeing the civil war in Sudan since 2023. The region is struggling with a "catastrophic" lack of resources.

• Funding Cuts: Global humanitarian funding has dropped to roughly $20 billion annually since 2022. Major donors, including the US and Germany, have scaled back contributions. Germany’s aid budget, for instance, fell from over €3 billion in 2022 to approximately €1 billion in 2025.
• Operational Impact: UNHCR has been forced to cut 5,000 staff members (a reduction of over 25%). Local NGOs, often the most efficient, are closing, forcing the UNHCR to act as the "agency of last resort" with dwindling resources.

2. WASH and Public Health Challenges

The lack of infrastructure has created a public health emergency.

• Water Scarcity: In some camps, refugees receive only 7.1 to 7.85 liters of water per person per day—far below the WHO minimum standard.
• Cholera Outbreak: Due to contaminated water and open-air defecation, cholera has emerged. By late 2025, nearly 3,000 cases were recorded. The disease is highly lethal, with patients losing fluids rapidly; local health officials reported 19 deaths in early stages.
• Infrastructure: Latrines are severely overused, with some serving up to 114 people each, failing to provide a sufficient barrier against contamination.

3. Education and Future Prospects

Education is a fundamental casualty of the funding crisis.

• Statistics: While 160,000 refugee children are enrolled in school, thousands more remain excluded.
• Teacher Crisis: Teachers in camps earn as little as €90 per month, and many have gone months without pay. Programs like the management training course for refugee students—which aimed to integrate them into the Chadian workforce—have been canceled due to budget constraints.

4. Strategic Frameworks and Solutions

• Hagina Projects: This initiative focuses on long-term sustainability by constructing dams to raise groundwater levels, allowing both refugees and local Chadian residents to farm. This reduces reliance on food rations and fosters community integration.
• Economic Development: Experts like Tobias Heidland (Kiel Institute) argue that stabilizing the local economy is a strategic necessity for Europe. If refugees cannot survive in Chad, they are likely to migrate toward North Africa and Europe, a scenario that would cost European taxpayers significantly more than proactive humanitarian investment.

5. Geopolitical Context

• Regional Competition: While Western aid is shrinking, China is expanding its influence in Chad through infrastructure projects (stadiums, bridges, and refineries).
• Security Risks: The porous border with Sudan and the presence of Russian mercenaries in the Sahel create a "ticking time bomb." Experts warn that if Chad becomes a failed state, it will trigger mass displacement, similar to the Syrian refugee crisis of 2013, where a lack of early intervention led to a massive influx of refugees into Europe.

6. Notable Quotes

• Dominique Isabelle Hyde (UNHCR): "In 2015, we had the exact same amount of funding that we have this year, but there were half the number of refugees and IDPs."
• Ulf Lessing (Konrad Adenauer Foundation): "There’s a ticking time bomb in Eastern Chad... It’s in our interest to stabilize the economy... to provide emergency food aid and access to basic services."
• Anonymous Teacher: "We have 4 months we are not get the salary for the teachers... no school system can run like this for long."

Synthesis and Conclusion

The situation in Eastern Chad represents a critical failure of global humanitarian support. The transition from emergency relief to self-sufficiency (via projects like Hagina) is being stifled by immediate, drastic funding cuts. The withdrawal of aid is not only causing immediate suffering—manifested in cholera outbreaks and food insecurity—but is also creating a long-term security risk. By failing to fund basic services like education and water, the international community is inadvertently fueling a future migration crisis and allowing geopolitical rivals to fill the vacuum left by Western donors. The primary takeaway is that humanitarian aid is not merely charity; it is a necessary investment in regional stability and conflict prevention.