The region
In geographic terms, Africa’s Sahel region stretches across the continent from east to west—a semi-arid belt that lies between the Saharan desert to the north and savannas to the south. The word Sahel comes from Arabic and means "coast" or "shore of the desert". In geopolitical terms, the Sahel is a vast region in Africa that includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, northern Cameroon (Far North region), and northern Nigeria. The countries of the Sahel are among the least developed in the world. Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali rank at the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI).
The humanitarian situation
The Sahel region is facing one of the fastest-growing humanitarian crises in the world, with 36 million people in need of humanitarian aid in 2024. And at the same time, it is one of the most forgotten. Armed conflict, deteriorating security, political instability, and widespread poverty are the main drivers of unprecedented humanitarian needs, particularly in the central Sahel region, which includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. This deteriorating humanitarian emergency is further compounded by global food insecurity and the impact of the climate crisis. Rapid climate changes are causing natural disasters to occur with increasing frequency and severity.
The latest wave of displacement in the region has pushed the total number of people forced to flee to nearly 10 million people. As of December 2023, more than 7.6 million people were internally displaced within their own country in the Sahel, most of them within Burkina Faso (2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)), Nigeria (3.5 million IDPs), and Cameroon (1 million IDPs). At least 2.3 million people have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad have made it on the Emergency Watchlist 2024 released by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) identified the situations in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Mali as some of the most neglected displacement crises globally. According to CARE International, the situations in Cameroon, Chad, Mali, and Niger are among the world's forgotten crises that received the least media attention last year.
In 2024, the Sahel and neighboring countries face major humanitarian challenges, with 35.9 million people in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection, a slight decrease from 2023. The six countries where millions of women, men and children are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance include: Burkina Faso (6.3 million), Cameroon (4.3 million), Chad (5.8 million), Mali (7.1 million), Niger (4.5 million), and Nigeria (7.9 million).
In 2023, 37.8 million people were in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection. While 24.1 million people in total were in need of humanitarian assistance in the countries of the Lake Chad Basin (Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon), 13.7 million people required humanitarian aid in the central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso and Mali. The six countries where millions of women, men and children were in need of humanitarian assistance included: Mali (9 million), Nigeria (8.3 million), Chad (6.9 million), Cameroon (4.7 million), Burkina Faso (4.7 million), and Niger (4.2 million).
Burkina Faso: The people of Burkina Faso continue to experience a multidimensional humanitarian crisis that has worsened since 2019. More than 2 million people are displaced inside the country. A de facto blockade by armed groups of areas where more than 1 million people live or have sought refuge has deprived people of free movement and necessary supplies.
Mali: Mali is experiencing enormous humanitarian needs. Some 30 percent of the population are projected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024. Some 715,000 people across Mali are currently affected by crisis or worse levels of hunger, and 2.8 million face stress levels of food insecurity. In the course of 2024, 1.3 million people are expected to slip into acute food insecurity (crisis level or worse). The departure of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was completed by December 31, 2023, and has impacted conflict dynamics and resulted in fresh hostilities.
Niger: Niger continues to face a combination of crises: persistent armed conflicts, climate-induced disasters, nutritional emergencies and epidemics, all of which have been exacerbated by political instability following a military coup in late July 2023. In 2024, an estimated 4.3 million people, including 2.4 million children, will require humanitarian aid. The estimated number of food-insecure people during the lean season amounts to 3.3 million.
Chad: Protracted and rapid-onset multidimensional crises, aggravated by climate change, have created a challenging humanitarian situation for the people of Chad. Among the recent crises in Chad has been the large influx of Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees since April 2023. More than 500,000 refugees and Chadian returnees have arrived since the start of the war. Chad hosts now more than one million refugees. With the worsening security situation in Sudan's Darfur region, an estimated additional 250,000 refugees are expected in 2024. 2.1 million people living in Chad are facing acute food insecurity on crisis level or worse.
Cameroon: In Cameroon, 4.7 million people - including 2.5 million children - urgently require humanitarian assistance due complex and multifaceted crises: armed conflict causing internal and cross-border displacement, intercommunal violence, disease outbreaks and seasonal flooding. There are one million internally displaced people in the country. In the Far North region, the number of IDPs has increased by almost 20 percent in one year. Cameroon is also hosting about half a million refugees and asylum seekers.
Nigeria: Armed conflict in northeast Nigeria a continues to adversely affect the lives and prospects of 7.9 million people, 60 percent of them children. Additionally, 474,000 people in the country's northwest and 489,000 in Benue State have been displaced due to banditry and armed violence, including farmer-herder violence.
In the Sahel, an unprecedented food crisis is ongoing, driven by conflict, soaring prices of food in global markets, and a decline in agriculture production due to climate change, violence and displacement. In 2023, 32.5 million people in the Sahel and West Africa were experiencing acute food insecurity (crisis levels or worse), including more than 18.5 million in Nigeria, 3 million in Cameroon, nearly 3.4 million in Burkina Faso, over 3.3 million in Niger, and 2.1 million in Chad.
The latest Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis also reveals that over 1.3 million people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity or worse. The number of people lacking regular access to safe and nutritious food was projected to rise to 39 million in the Sahel and West Africa during the June-August 2024 lean season.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns children in the region could die in devastating numbers unless urgent support is provided, as severe malnutrition and the risk of water-borne disease collide. In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, drought and conflict are driving water insecurity, with 40 million children facing high to extremely high levels of water vulnerability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more children die as a result of unsafe water and sanitation in the Sahel than in any other part of the world.
In 2022, devastating floods in the Sahel and neighboring regions increased the needs of millions of people. In Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon, above-average rainfall and flooding killed hundreds, displaced thousands and affected millions.
Without sufficient resources for humanitarian response, the Sahel crisis risks further escalating and putting even more millions of children, women and men at risk. As always, women and children are bearing the brunt of this crisis.
The security situation
Over the past decade, the Sahel has experienced increasingly violent armed conflicts with the rapid emergence of extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and Boko Haram. The upsurge of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) has fueled intercommunal violence that has killed thousands. Intense and indiscriminate violence has forced millions to flee across the region, both within countries and across borders.
Security incidents, attacks and kidnappings are a daily reality for millions of civilians and humanitarian workers in the field. Attacks on civilians and infrastructure and conflict between the state and non-state armed groups have led to massive population displacement across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.
Escalating militant Islamist violence in Burkina Faso — especially violence against civilians — forced 682,000 people from their homes in 2021 and 438,000 in 2022. Violent events linked to militant Islamist groups, notably the Macina Liberation Front and the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (ISGS), are projected to increase in 2023. The security situation worsened in Burkina Faso following two military coups in January and September 2022. Across the country, 800,000 people are living in areas under blockade by armed groups, where they have no access to even basic services. The situation is increasingly dire, with some people forced to eat leaves to survive.
These patterns are being replicated in Burkina Faso’s neighbors, Mali and Niger. Mali witnessed another military takeover of power in May 2021. In Niger, the presidential guard staged a coup in July 2023 and installed a general as ruler. Violence by organized armed groups in the Liptako Gourma region - also known as the tri-border area, which includes contiguous areas in northern Burkina Faso, southern and central Mali, and southwestern Niger-is endangering civilians, preventing affected populations from accessing vital services, limiting humanitarian access, and aggravating food insecurity.
Conflict is also spreading throughout the region and into the coastal countries, with the risk of instability spreading to new and previously stable areas. West African coastal countries are witnessing the increasing humanitarian consequences of the spillover of the Sahel crisis. In 2023, the number of people fleeing violence in the Central Sahel and seeking refuge in four countries on the Gulf of Guinea - Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo - has risen from 30,000 in January to 123,000 in December.
Security conditions have worsened in parts of the Lake Chad Basin — an area comprising portions of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria — as organized armed groups continue to attack civilians, particularly in Cameroon’s Far North Region and northeastern Nigeria. However, increasing band violence is also reported in northwestern Nigeria, while the food situation there is deteriorating.
The ongoing conflict in the Lake Chad Basin, along with climatic shocks and extreme poverty, continue to fuel the crisis in the Sahel region. In the Lake Chad Basin crisis area, more than 11 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and 3.3 million are currently displaced.
Donations
Your donation for the Sahel emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.
- UN Crisis Relief: Sahel crisis
https://crisisrelief.un.org/sahel-crisis - UN Crisis Relief: Nigeria crisis
https://crisisrelief.un.org/nigeria-crisis - World Food Programme: Sahel emergency
https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/sahel-emergency - UNHCR: Sahel emergency
https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/sahel-crisis/
Currently, many NGOs are appealing for the global hunger crisis. You may also consider making an unearmarked donation or a broader earmarked donation.
- Plan International: Hunger Crisis Appeal
https://plan-international.org/emergencies/hunger-crisis-appeal/ - Action Against Hunger: Overall Emergency Relief
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/donate/emergency-relief-response - Oxfam International: Donate to the Global Emergency Fund
https://www.oxfam.org/en/donate/global-emergency-fund - International Rescue Committee: Donate
https://help.rescue.org/donate/ - Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC): Donate
https://www.nrc.no/make-a-difference-today/
To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.
Further information
- World Health Organization (WHO): Humanitarian crisis in Sahel region of Africa
https://www.who.int/emergencies/situations/humanitarian-crisis-in-sahel-region-of-africa - European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO): Sahel
https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/where/africa/sahel_en - USA for UNHCR: Sahel Crisis
https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/sahel/ - International Crisis Group: Sahel
https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/sahel
Last updated: 28/01/2024