Sahel Crisis Humanitarian Needs and Requirements Overview 2023

Putting people first

The Sahel region1 is home to 109 million people of whom 34.5 million need humanitarian assistance and protection. They comprise 45 per cent women, 57 per cent children, and 12 per cent persons with disabilities.

The Sahel is one of the world’s most crisis-prone areas, with increasingly extreme weather patterns, frequent droughts and floods, and land degradation that threaten vulnerable communities’ livelihoods.

The persistent needs are exacerbated by an increase in armed conflict and violence, which uproot communities and hinder social cohesion, reinforcing negative coping mechanisms.

Years of conflict in several countries have disrupted the future of the new generation and limited communities’ resilience.

To effectively respond to these needs and prioritize people, affected communities should be involved in the entire humanitarian programme cycle, expressing their most pressing needs.

Humanitarian actors should set priorities and adapt interventions accordingly, and make the system is more inclusive, accessible, and based on decisions taken by the people. Despite the efforts already made, clarity on humanitarian aid and inclusivity must be reinforced, particularly for people living in remote or hard-to-reach areas.

Response Plans for 2023 have been developed for Burkina Faso, Cameroon (Far North), Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria (North-East), requiring $US4.6 billion.

Coordination, adequate resources, and a principled response are critical to scale up aid operations and respond to the needs expressed by the population.