“Late Chadian government recognition of a food crisis, a slow build-up from aid agencies, and severe pipeline constraints due to closed Libyan and Nigerian borders mean food aid has not yet arrived in Chad, despite many thousands of people having already run out of food,” IRIN reports. “While staff in agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are working furiously to beat the clock, a lead time of up to six months to get food to where it is needed means that the very soonest food will start to arrive is sometime in April,” the news service adds.

The news service quotes residents of Eri Toukoul village in the Kanem Region and the village of Tassino in the Guera Region, who discuss food shortages in their communities, and writes, “These examples are backed up by an inter-agency assessment from October 2011, which predicted families in some vulnerable regions such as northern Kanem, would run out of food by February.” IRIN notes, “The Chadian government only appealed for help on 21 December,” and, “[a]s a result, the U.N. country team, whose protocol dictates that it waits for an invitation to respond, started mobilizing late” (3/13).