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Nigeria: Regional partners present $2 billion Sahel response plan

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal

(Dakar, 16 February 2015): Robert Piper, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel presented the Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2015 in Dakar today. The plan calls for US$1.96 billion to bring vital assistance to millions of people affected by crises in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

Over twenty million people across the region are short of food and 2.6 million of them already depend on life-saving food assistance, with the most difficult months of the lean season still ahead. Nearly six million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2015.

“The vulnerability of communities in the Sahel remains appallingly high. Millions of people risk falling into crisis even with relatively small shocks,” said Piper. “The humanitarian community in the Sahel is striving to adapt its strategy to better respond to the chronic challenges of the region, boosting innovations in support to livelihoods and addressing complex issues like malnutrition and food insecurity in an integrated fashion.”

The 2015 appeal forms part of a regional multi-year strategy which emphasizes early intervention and closer partnerships with Governments and development actors. It includes plans for each of the nine countries and involves more than a hundred organizations to save lives and protect the assets of the most vulnerable. “Ultimately only national governments and development actors can permanently address the drivers of the Sahel’s chronic crises, and efforts are encouragingly on the increase. Recent initiatives, such as early warning mechanisms, safety nets, food reserves, weather-based insurance or support to pastoralists are the way forward,” said the Regional Coordinator. “But given the scale of the needs, those long-term efforts must be matched with a renewed sense of urgency.”

Violent conflict and insecurity surged over the last 12 months in many Sahel countries. 2.8 million people have been uprooted from their homes, over one million more than this time last year. In addition to the volatile situation in Mali, escalating violence in northeast Nigeria has displaced more than one million people internally and over 150 000 into neighbouring countries. “As the fate of the Sahel countries is inevitably intertwined, conflict and violence often bear serious regional implications,” warned Piper. “Insecurity is creating more human suffering for communities that are already amongst the poorest of the world, reducing access of humanitarian teams to the people who need help, and increasing the costs of assistance. Most worryingly, if the current level of violence continues, it will threaten hard-won gains in curbing the trend of growing needs in the Sahel,” said Piper.

The event in Dakar featured the presence of the Christos Stylianides European Commissioner in charge of Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management on mission to the region. Also present were Mrs. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Minister of Health of the Republic of Senegal, and Ms. Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Sahel.

To learn more about the humanitarian needs in the Sahel and how humanitarian teams plan to respond, visit: www.unocha.org/sahel2015.

For further information, please call:
Berenice Van Den Driessche, OCHA, vandendriessche@un.org, +221 77 333 91 95 Ivo Brandau, OCHA, brandaui@un.org , 221 77 450 62 32 OCHA press releases are available on http://www.unocha.org/rowca


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