United Nations, April 13 : UN humanitarians launched a $674 million relief plan to help 4.4 million people in Chad, one of the world's poorest countries. "The UN and our partners, along with the government, launched our humanitarian response plan for this year," said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday. OCHA added the number of people in need in Chad is up by about 800,000 from last year, for a total of 6.9 million, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced people, Xinhua news agency reported. According to the humanitarian office, the increase is due to devastating flooding last year, insecurity, climate change, the economic toll of the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine affecting food prices. "Without emergency assistance, we expect that nearly 1.5 million people will be food insecure during the lean season starting in June," OCHA said. "A similar number lack adequate access to healthcare. Our response plan for this year prioritises food security, health services and efforts to address the effects of climate change," the office added. OCHA stressed that there must be sufficient funding for this year's appeal, adding that its 2022 humanitarian response plan was just 60 per cent funded, allowing humanitarians to reach 2.2 million people. /IANS