EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR VALERIE AMOS TO VISIT CHAD

WHO: Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator and United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

WHAT: Mission to the Republic of Chad

WHEN: 5 - 6 May 2014

WHERE: N'Djamena and field visit

Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, is scheduled to visit Chad from 5 to 6 May. On her first visit to the country, she is expected to raise attention to the humanitarian situation, notably chronic food insecurity and malnutrition, and the humanitarian impact in Chad of the crisis in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR).

Ms. Amos is scheduled to meet government officials and humanitarian actors to discuss ways of enhancing the humanitarian response to more than 97,000 people who have recently fled the crisis in CAR to Chad and how to support a more resilience-oriented approach to address chronic malnutrition and food insecurity in the Sahel zone of Chad. She will be accompanied by Robert Piper, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel.

During the two-day mission, Ms. Amos and Mr. Piper are scheduled to visit Gaoui transit site on the outskirts of the capital N'Djamena which houses over 3,300 evacuees from CAR. Over 61,000 people remain in transit sites in the south of the country and near N'Djamena. They will also travel to Mao in the Kanem region (200 km north of N'Djamena) to visit a nutrition centre in this region severely affected by food insecurity due to recurring droughts.

The Government of Chad with support from the humanitarian community provides life-saving assistance to the affected communities but their projects and programmes are critically underfunded.