The United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations have warned that the worsening of difficult conditions in the African Sahel and the intensification of violence there may push more than 29 million people into a dire humanitarian crisis.
This complicated crisis requires, according to the UN the provision of urgent assistance and protection for local communities in the coming period, a number that has increased by about 5 million over the past year.
A statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that levels of insecurity and hunger have reached unprecedented levels in six regions of the African Sahel, which includes "Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, and northeastern Nigeria."
He noted that these semi-arid regions, which extend along the southern edge of the Sahara, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, have already been plagued by violence for years.
Due to the increasing number of deadly attacks by terrorist groups, gender-based violence, extortion, or intimidation, 5.3 million residents have been forced to flee, often multiple times.
He pointed out that "the violence in the central Sahel region and the Lake Chad Basin shows no signs of abating, making security incidents, attacks, and kidnappings a daily reality for millions of civilians.
The impact of violence on women and children has also become devastating, as women and children in local communities are exposed to a widespread and growing risk of kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual assault, and rape.
The statement, issued by the UNCHR, explained that the Sahel countries recorded the highest rates of child and forced marriages in the world.
Moreover, children are also exposed to child labor, economic exploitation, recruitment, abuse, physical and verbal violence, and psychological harm by armed militias deployed in the region.
He added that thousands of schools are closed, and it is expected that 1.6 million children suffer from acute malnutrition.
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