To meet the needs of the most vulnerable individuals impacted by the humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Nigeria, the European Union is contributing €201 million in humanitarian funding. Commissioner Janez Lenarčič made the statement today in Brussels during the Senior Officials Meeting on Sahel and Lake Chad.
The money will go toward supporting initiatives related to food security and malnutrition aid, health care and protection, water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter, and education, as well as the transportation of goods and humanitarian workers to hard-to-reach places. The EU’s humanitarian aid response will continue to concentrate on the countries and regions that are most severely affected by the ongoing violence and insecurity, particularly the coastal nations of West Africa that are already feeling the effects of the spillover from Central Sahel.
The whole amount of money will help with humanitarian initiatives in:
– Burkina Faso 26.9 million;
– Cameroon ($21,000,000);
– Chad (€57.9 million, in addition to the €45.3 million initially announced by Commissioner Lenarčič during his visit to the country at the end of January 2024, and the newly allocated €8.7 million in response to the consequences of the conflict in Sudan to the neighboring countries and another €3.1 million to support an EU Humanitarian Air Bridge operation in the East);
– €24 million for Mali;
– Mauritania (€5.7 million, which includes the addition of €3 million that was set aside in January 2024 as a reaction to the country’s growing Malian refugee population);
– €24.6 million for Niger;
Nigeria has 31.5 million euros.
“Insecurity, violence, and over a decade of armed conflict are driving communities in the Sahel and Lake Chad regions to new depths of suffering,” stated Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management. More than 35 million people in these regions are currently in need of assistance, and the humanitarian catastrophe is also spreading to the coastal nations of West Africa. Simultaneously, we are dealing with a decreasing humanitarian response capability. The international community must so intensify its efforts to close the widening gap between human demand and available resources. By raising its commitment to more than 200 million euros for the two areas in 2024, the EU is contributing in part. I implore the rest of the world community to do its role.
Through the provision of €2.4 million through the Emergency Toolbox, a tool designed to aid in sudden-onset emergencies and specially allocated to emergency response for vulnerable individuals outside the EU, the funding also assists the response to diseases and population mobility.
Context
It is alarming to see the humanitarian conditions in which the people of the Sahel and Lake Chad regions live. In 2024, more than 35 million people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Nigeria would require humanitarian aid. This corresponds to one in five citizens of the Central Sahel (Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali). In 2023, the three Central Sahel countries’ humanitarian requests got just roughly one-third of the necessary cash, indicating that the problem is still largely underfunded.
The primary causes of the humanitarian crisis are violence and insecurity, which has a variety of effects on the protection of those impacted as well as their access to food, forced relocation, and the provision of essential services.
One of the most detrimental effects of the ongoing military conflicts is the food and nutrition crisis. Between June and August of 2024, it is anticipated that over 46 million people in the two regions will experience a food crisis. The number of people experiencing a food crisis has increased by 105% when compared to the average over the previous five years, indicating a concerning trend in both the scope and intensity of the problem.
The number of people compelled to leave their country of origin is another concerning aspect of the humanitarian crisis: about 10 million internally displaced people and refugees are currently being hosted by the Sahel and Lake Chad areas countries. In addition to increasing the number of forced relocations, the attacks on civilians hurt education. In March of this year, over 12,000 schools were forced to close because of insecurity, impacting over 2.2 million students.
In places plagued by war, access to local communities and the distribution of help are still restricted. Regulations enforced by both regular and non-state armed groups frequently lead to access denials, limitations on civilian movement, bureaucratic roadblocks, arbitrary detentions of humanitarian workers, kidnappings, and other forms of reprisal. The humanitarian community is still there, but the amount of aid given is insufficient to meet needs, and in certain situations, national restrictions also make it more difficult for humanitarian players to provide support that could save lives. Both development assistance and humanitarian relief will need to be provided to meet needs.
For Further Details
The European Commission (europa.eu) – Burkina Faso
European Commission – Cameroon (europa.eu)
Chad: Europa.eu, the European Commission
Mali – Europa.eu – European Commission
The European Commission (europa.eu) – Mauritania
European Commission (europa.eu) – Niger
The European Commission (europa.eu) – Nigeria
European Commission – Sahel (europa.eu)
European Commission’s EU Humanitarian Air Bridge (europa.eu)
European Commission’s Emergency Toolbox (europa.eu)
