UN Seeks Grants For Sahel Region Over Violence, Poverty

The United Nations says it is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars at a donor conference for Sahel region countries plagued by violence, poverty and climate change.
The funds for Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso will do more than prevent hunger, and provide schooling, shelter and health services, UN emergency aid chief Mark Lowcock said ahead of the meeting.
Lowcock said that donor countries should also help the region on the southern rim of the Sahara desert because it is a breeding ground for extremists and criminal groups.
“These groups pose a threat to Europe and the rest of the world”, he said.
“If things deteriorate in an alarming way there will be consequences and implications for everybody,’’
Lowcock told dpa ahead of the online conference hosted by the government of Denmark, along with Germany, the European Union and the United Nations.
Chaos in the region makes it easier for criminal groups to smuggle drugs, arms and people to Europe, he said.
Climate change is also stoking conflict, as armers and herders fight over dwindling fertile land.
The number of people who have been uprooted from their homes in the region has increased more than 20 fold to 1.6 million since 2020.
The UN needs 1.4 billion dollars to provide urgent humanitarian aid to more than 13 million people in the three central Sahel countries this year, but so far only 39 per cent of that sum  have been funded.
The UN estimates it will need 1.56 billion dollars next year.