UN agencies launched $1.98 billion Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016

The United Nations agencies and partners on 9 December 2015 launched the Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016. The purpose of the initiative is to mobilise international support to tackle triple crisis of poverty, insecurity and climate change that plagues the Sahel region in Africa.

Highlights of Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016

• It includes a regional plan that calls for 1.98 billion US dollars to provide vital assistance to millions of people in nine countries across the region.
• It will focus on tackling dire effects of climate change, abject poverty, fast population growth and a tormenting rise in violence and insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region.
• It will ensure millions are afforded the most basic assistance and protection they deserve to survive and live a dignified life in the region.

Why the initiative was launched?

• According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates, in 2016, nearly 23.5 million people, or almost one in six, will not have enough to eat, of which at least 6 million will require emergency food assistance.
• About 5.9 million children under five years of age will be threatened by acute malnutrition, impacting their lives and development.
• A spurt in violence has worsened the situation in the region, which has also led to new peaks of displacement.
• Nearly 4.5 million people forced from their homes, representing a threefold increase in less than two years.
• The violence across the Lake Chad Basin accounts for more than half of the displaced people in the Sahel.
• The volatile situation in Mali continues to hamper the return to their homes of some 200000 Malians.
• Thirty million people live in areas affected by Boko Haram’s acts of terrorism. Its random targeting leaves entire populations in fear that led to fleeing of 2.5 million so far that included 1.4 million children.

About Sahel region

It is a vast belt in northern Africa dividing the Sahara desert and the savannahs to the south. It covers parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, extreme south of Algeria, Niger, extreme north of Nigeria, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, and northern Eritrea.

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