Sahel Risks Becoming a Forgotten Crisis, UN Official Says
A senior U.N. official
is warning Africa’s volatile Sahel region risks becoming a forgotten crisis
because of the many competing emergencies around the world. The head of the
regional office for West and Central Africa for the Office of the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, Charles Bernimolin, expressed his concerns in an
interview with VOA this week.
He noted that millions
of people in six Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger,
and Nigeria — need international support to survive. The official, based in
Dakar, Senegal, told VOA he drummed this message home in meetings with donor
countries here in Geneva.
He said 18.6 million
people face acute hunger, with many on the brink of starvation. He said 7.7
million children under the age of 5 are malnourished, including nearly 2
million who are severely malnourished and risk dying without prompt treatment.
The region’s growing
needs, he said, are largely ignored because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war
in Ukraine, and other crises around the world. While the world is not looking,
he said the Sahel crisis is worsening.
"Because of crisis, you
have an entire generation who basically does not have access to basic services,
who does not have access to the minimum of food or the minimum of health and
school protection. In certain cases, those people are even kidnapped, killed.”
Bernimolin said the
combination of conflict and violence, deep poverty, weak governance, and the
impact of climate change is driving millions of people to the fringes of
survival.
OCHA said armed
conflict and violent extremism in the region have forced millions to abandon
their land and homes. It said fighting by jihadists and other armed groups in
Burkina Faso has displaced nearly 2 million people.
Bernimolin said the
ongoing violence has triggered an unprecedented exodus from rural to urban
areas, noting that those abandoning their land cannot cultivate their crops or
feed themselves and their families
"Displaced people.
People who do not have any place to go, that have to quit their village and
have to be accommodated either in camps — something that we try to avoid or
something in other communities and other villages … Those communities that are
affected by the crisis. They are displaced. They need access to food, water,
sanitation, health, and education. That is really the priority.”
While more than 30
million Sahelians need assistance and protection, Bernimolin said only a third
of the U.N.’s $4.1 billion appeal for its humanitarian operation was funded.
VOA
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