In response to growing humanitarian needs in Africa's Sahel region, the European Commission is increasing its support with an additional EUR69 million.
The new funds will provide food assistance, clean water and access to basic health services to women and children suffering from hunger and food insecurity. It will also help vulnerable people affected by the conflict in Mali as well as refugees in Chad fleeing fightings in neighboring countries, the European Commission said in a press release on Monday.
"To save lives and help communities live through the crisis that continues to grip the Sahel we need to intensify our aid," said Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. She is currently visiting humanitarian projects in Chad, one of the Sahel countries which is facing a complex crisis.
This latest funding announcement brings the Commission's emergency assistance in the Sahel to EUR184 million since January. EUR53 million of the new money will go on emergency relief for people affected by the overall Sahel food and nutrition crisis. A further EUR4 million will assist refugees from Sudan and returning Chadians fleeing fighting across the border and EUR12 million has been committed to the on-going crisis in Mali.
There are alarming signs that the Sahel as a whole will again be hit by a severe food and nutrition crisis this year. Thousands of people in Mali continue to need humanitarian aid because of an 18-month crisis. Four and-a-half million children under five years of age are currently at high risk of acute malnutrition in the region.
Last year, an international humanitarian response to drought in the Sahel, led by the European Union, averted a major hunger crisis and provided life-saving nutritional care to more than a million severely malnourished children. The European Commission said it is pioneering a new approach to breaking the cycle of hunger through building the resilience of vulnerable communities to the impact of climate change, which in turn is provoking more frequent and intense droughts.
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