29 million registered in the Sahel in need of humanitarian aid Humanitarian Crises News

UN officials have said the crisis is “unique” and call for more funding to address the humanitarian situation.

29 million people in the 29 countries of the Sahel region that have suffered from unrest are in need of humanitarian aid in the face of “unparalleled” insecurity and growing hunger, the United Nations and NGOs have warned.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the signatories said another five million people needed help now in Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and northeastern Nigeria compared to last year.

In recent years, large parts of western Sahel, a semi-arid region directly south of the Sahara desert, have been subjected to military campaigns by national armies and international partners and local militias with violence involving numerous armed groups.

“The conflict in the Sahel is becoming more widespread, more complex and involving more armed actors,” said Xavier Creach, Sahel coordinator at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and deputy director of West and Central Africa.

“Civilians end up paying the price because they suffer more and more deadly attacks, gender violence, extortion or intimidation, and are forced to flee, many, many times.”

The region plunged into conflict in 2012 when armed groups overcame the uprising by ethnic Tuareg separatists in northern Mali. France led an intervention the following year to repel armed groups, which in 2015 took over the campaign in central Mali and then dispersed and reunited in Niger and Burkina Faso.

Cameroon and the northern regions of Chad and Sahel in northern Nigeria are also plagued by conflicts with armed groups.

A document signed by the Norwegian Refugee Council and the international NGO Plan was also signed on Tuesday, saying about 5.3 million people have been displaced and in need of protection. The violence has closed thousands of schools across the region, and 1.6 million children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

“We have seen a drop in hunger by almost a third in West Africa, to the highest levels of the best decade,” says the document, Chris Nikoi, regional director of the UN World Food Program.

He added that food prices associated with violence are rising due to hunger and malnutrition.

The signatories called for more funding to address the dire humanitarian situation.

“Behind the numbers and data are stories of human suffering,” said the statement, Julie Belanger, regional director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs.

“Without sufficient resources, the crisis will worsen, eroding the strength of communities and endangering millions more children, women and men,” he added.