Attachments
IOM VISION
As part of its efforts to engage in the responses in the Central Sahel region, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been scaling up its operations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to provide life-saving support to displaced and vulnerable persons affected by the growing crises, while seeking to reduce conflict drivers across the region, and prevent the expansion of the conflict into bordering regions and countries. IOM is responding to both the humanitarian and governance priorities in providing assistance and protection to affected and displaced communities, while also addressing the structural causes of instability in affected areas, maintaining a specific regional focus on cross-border fragility/dynamics.
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
In the Central Sahel area, which covers Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, long-standing lack of development and a recent increase in violence over access to natural resources has created an environment exploited by non-state armed groups (NSAG) and exacerbated inter-communal conflict. The Liptako-Gourma tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, is severely impacted with the high risk of conflict spill over to neighbouring states, including Mauritania, and the coastal States of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin. The complex crisis is exacerbated by climatic variability, demographic pressure, high levels of poverty and the absence of state institutions in most of the regions impacted, which further creates disaffection and a lack of access to basic services as well as to livelihood opportunities. NSAG activity has expanded geographically in recent years, increasing exponentially between 2018 and 2021, restricting access by state, humanitarian and development actors to the populations most in need of support. The crisis also generates significant protection concerns due to the frequency of human rights violations committed by all forces and armed groups, widespread violence, notably towards women and children, the presence of explosive devices, forced recruitments into NSAG and kidnappings, a lack of access to documentation or justice and massive forced displacements. These concerns have been frequently highlighted by the Project 21 protection monitoring dashboards and reports produced by the Regional Protection working group. In late 2021, according to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), national authorities, UNHCR and OCHA, over 2.3 million people have been internally displaced by the ongoing crisis, across all three States and humanitarian needs are tremendous for all displaced and affected communities, notably for food, water, shelters and health services, including mental health and psychosocial support, which has been further exacerbated by the COVId-19 pandemic. In addition, Mali has also experienced two coups (August 2020 and May 2021), which creates a very fragile political situation as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is sanctioning the country for not organizing new elections in the initial timeframe. The beginning of 2022 was also marked by a military coup in Burkina on 23-24 January, which is opening an uncertain era in the country. On 27 January 2022, in follow up to a Ministerial Round Table held in October 2020, a virtual Senior Official Meeting on Central Sahel was convened by the United Nations, the European Union, the German Federal Foreign Office and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Denmark to alert on the dramatically deteriorating situation in the region and appeal for 2 billion dollars to assist over 15 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.