The lives of more than 35 million people in the Sahel region are being affected by a complex and interdependent pattern of crises, exacerbated by deteriorating security, political instability, and the effects of climate change, leaving them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. UN agencies warn that lives will be at risk if aid organizations are not given the resources they need to respond to these crises and help the region's most vulnerable people.
According to this year's published Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs), more than 35.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in six countries in the Sahel: Burkina Faso (6.3 million), Cameroon (3.4 million), Chad (6 million), Mali (7.1 million), Niger (4.5 million) and Nigeria (7.9 million).
The UN and its partners need US$4.7 billion this year to help 21 million of the most vulnerable people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon's Far North region, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. As of June 6, only 16 percent of the funding ($761 million) has been received.
On Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released the Sahel Humanitarian Needs and Requirements Overview 2024, which highlights the nature of the humanitarian crises facing the region, what this means for the people living in the region, and how humanitarian organizations are responding to these crises.
In its new report, OCHA identifies the two areas of greatest concern: the Liptako Gourma region, which includes parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and the Lake Chad Basin, where Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria meet. Meanwhile, spillover effects are increasingly being felt in the Gulf of Guinea coastal countries of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, as well as in Mauritania.
According to OCHA, humanitarian agencies provided life-saving assistance and protection services to more than 15.6 million people across the Sahel in 2023. However, humanitarian response plans for the six Sahel countries received only 41 percent of the funding needed, leaving millions without vital assistance.
Across the Sahel, increasing violence and conflict are threatening lives and livelihoods, forcing families to flee their homes and preventing access to basic social services - 2.2 million children are deprived of their right to education due to school closures, and nearly 1,300 health centers are closed.
The UN humanitarian office noted that while the increasing impact of climate change is a driver of vulnerability, the protection of human life and people's fundamental rights and dignity remains the most urgent humanitarian need. Children, women and girls, and people with special needs are particularly vulnerable.
On Friday, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed deep concern over the rapidly growing humanitarian crisis in the region, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
“In the Central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, over 3.3 million people are forcibly displaced due to relentless conflict, exacerbated by the worsening effects of the climate crisis, according to April 2024 data”, UNHCR spokesperson Alpha Seydi Ba told journalists in Geneva.
“This staggering forced displacement of civilians demands immediate international action to prevent it worsening.” he said, noting that the security situation in the Central Sahel is volatile, forcing people to flee their homes in search of safety and protection, and that protection risks are widespread.
According to the UN agency, survey data from the first quarter of 2024 show that forcibly displaced people and host communities perceive theft, attacks on civilians and gender-based violence as the main risks. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and trafficking.
“Furthermore, the lack of adequate shelter, clean water and sanitation exacerbates the dire conditions faced by the displaced while the persistent insecurity prevents many from returning home, often leading to repeated displacement within countries and, increasingly, across borders,” Ba said.
While 2.8 million people have been internally displaced within Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger over the past four years, the number of refugees from these three countries has risen to 550,000 over the same period.
Ba explained that in Burkina Faso, the double threat of violence and inadequate living conditions perpetuates a cycle of fragility. Over the past year, the outflow of Burkinabe refugees has been significant, with an estimated 117,600 arriving in neighboring coastal countries as of April 2024.
According to UNHCR, there are currently over 200,000 Malian refugees in Mauritania, 130,000 in Niger, and nearly 40,000 in Burkina Faso, as well as 50,000 who have fled to Algeria but have no access to asylum procedures. At the same time, Mali is hosting some 94,000 refugees, mainly from Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, and is grappling with more than 354,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The UNHCR spokesperson noted that the increase in cross-border movements underscores the deepening crisis and the continued need to respond to needs in the Sahel by investing in protection, assistance and durable solutions. The UN Refugee Agency is advocating with the international community to maintain assistance during periods of political instability in the Sahel to avoid exacerbating existing problems and increasing the likelihood of future crises, he said.
Overall, the Sahel is home to nearly 10 million displaced people, including more than 2.3 million refugees and asylum seekers and 7.6 million internally displaced people, including many who have faced repeated displacement.
Burkina Faso and Nigeria have the highest number of IDPs, with over 2.1 million and 3.4 million respectively as of May 2024, while Chad hosts the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers, with 1.2 million. The war in Sudan has already driven more than 600,000 Sudanese to seek refuge in neighboring Chad.
The Sahel is experiencing an unprecedented food crisis, driven by conflict, soaring food prices on global markets, and declining agricultural production due to climate change, violence, and displacement.
From June to August 2024 - the lean season - a staggering 45.2 million people in the six most affected Sahel countries are estimated to be acutely food insecure (crisis level or worse), including 31.8 million in Nigeria, 2.5 million in Cameroon, 2.7 million in Burkina Faso, 1.4 million in Mali, 3.4 million in Niger and 3.4 million in Chad.
In a related development, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) this week released its annual list of the world's ten most neglected displacement crises. The situations in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger were among the crises most widely ignored by donors, diplomats and the media.
Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad have also made it onto the International Rescue Committee's (IRC) Emergency Watchlist 2024. 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 in 2023.
Further information
Full text: UNHCR urges global response to neglected humanitarian crisis in the Sahel, UNHCR, briefing notes, released June 7, 2024
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-urges-global-response-neglected-humanitarian-crisis-sahel
Full text: 2024 Sahel Humanitarian Needs and Requirements Overview, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, report, released June 6, 2024
https://reliefweb.int/report/burkina-faso/2024-sahel-humanitarian-needs-and-requirements-overview