The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced that humanitarian partners will require $4.7 billion to aid 20.9 million people displaced and vulnerable individuals in portions of Nigeria and five additional African nations.
This information which was revealed in the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Requirement Overview report and was published on the OCHA’s website on Thursday.
It called for humanitarian intervention in the Sahel; an African region situated between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, encompasses Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.
The OCHA called on the international community to contribute generously to ensure that the humanitarian response plans for the region can be fully executed by the end of the year.
According to the UN agency reports, 32.8 million people across the Sahel region are impacted by a complex series of crises, worsened by instability, deteriorating security, and climate change effects.
The agency added that growing violence and conflict across the Sahel has further endangered lives and livelihoods, causing displacement from homes and hindering access to essential social services.
It emphasised that in Nigeria, over 7.9m people from Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states are in need, adding that the agency will target 4.4m people with the required funding of $926.5 million.
The UN also disclosed that 2.2 million children around these regions were deprived of their right to education due to school closures, noting that 1,263 health centres are closed despite over two million refugees and asylum seekers aside from 5.6 million internally displaced persons.
“Humanitarian partners require US$ 4.7 billion in 2024 to meet the urgent needs of 20.9 million people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon’s Far North Region, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
“The OCHA is warning that lives are at risk unless humanitarians are given the resources needed to respond to these crises and support the region’s most vulnerable people,” the statement read.
According to the report, as of 30 April, 2024, Burkina Faso and Nigeria have the highest number of internally displaced persons with over 2.1 million each.
“Of the 7.6 million total displaced people as of 30 April 2024, 5.6 million were internally displaced persons. Across West and Central Africa, more than half of all refugees and asylum seekers are children. Burkina Faso and Nigeria host the highest number of internally displaced persons with over 2.1 million each as of 30 April 2024, while Chad hosts the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers with 1.2 million as of the same date.
“The resurgence of conflict in Sudan has already driven more than half a million Sudanese to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad, and this number is likely to increase further unless the situation there stabilises,” it said.
The regional head of OCHA, Charles Bernimolin, reiterated that the work of humanitarians and international partners during a crisis cannot be overemphasised.
He pointed out that inadequate resources are a major challenge in addressing the humanitarian crisis, assuring that the international humanitarian community has the wherewithal to intervene.
“Humanitarians across the Sahel are doing extraordinary work, often in the most challenging circumstances. But the tangled web of crises that are faced is more complex than ever. Yet without the resources needed to respond to their needs, these crises will continue to escalate and spread, eroding resilience and putting the lives of vulnerable children, women and men at risk.
“Moreover, given that humanitarian action alone is not a long-term solution, I would also urge international partners to continue to engage with the region, to create durable solutions that will reduce humanitarian needs in the future,’’ he stated.
UN data revealed that while humanitarian partners delivered life-saving assistance and protection services to over 15.6 million people in the Sahel in 2023, millions remained deprived of essential aid due to receiving only 41 percent of the required funding last year.
As of June 3, 2024, only 16 percent of the humanitarian funding needs outlined in the six 2024 country response plans had been met. If aid operations collapse, the lives of millions of people across the Sahel region would be endangered, according to UN reports.
