UN warns of imminent
humanitarian crisis in the Sahel
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| A village in the Soum region in northern Burkina Faso(AFP) |
The United Nations expresses fears a humanitarian crisis is
growing in West Africa’s arid Sahel region. More than 860,000 people have been
displaced in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger due to insecurity linked to growing
extremist attacks.
By Linda Bordoni
"If the world is serious about saving lives, the time
to act is now," says David Beasley, the Executive Director of the UN’s
World Food Programme.
His appeal comes as WFP teams on the ground are seeing
malnutrition levels “pushed well past emergency thresholds” with young children
and new mothers in particularly dangerous situations.
Nearly half a million people have been displaced this year
in Burkina Faso alone as the landlocked country becomes the new hunting ground
for extremists linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.
In fact, the UN’s World Food Programme noted, Burkina Faso
saw more attacks in the first half of this year than it did in all of 2018 and
a third of the country is now a conflict zone
Fertile ground for jihadists
Farmers have been forced to abandon their fields, and as
communities take in displaced people, already stretched resources are further
depleted.
WFP is assisting more than 2.6 million people in Burkina
Faso, Mali and Niger. It says 150 million US dollars are urgently needed in a
region where some 20 million people live in conflict-affected areas.
Analysts observe that in a region, that in itself, already
has a lot of problems” such as drought, poverty, weak government, unemployment
and lack of services, extremists find fertile ground to exploit those troubles
and deprived communities turn on each other amid allegations of supporting the
jihadists.
Pope Francis’ appeal
Pope Francis issued an appeal for the promotion of
interreligious dialogue in Burkina Faso just last week. He called on
authorities to protect vulnerable civilians and step up their efforts to find a
solution to the violence.
“I encourage civil and religious authorities and all those
motivated by good will to multiply their efforts, in the spirit of the Abu
Dhabi Document on Human Fraternity, to promote interreligious dialogue and
harmony”, he said speaking during his weekly General Audience in the Vatican.
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