EU earmarks over €152 million for Africa’s Sahel region

The European Union (EU) announced Tuesday a humanitarian aid of more than €152 million for the African region of the Sahel.

“While Sahel countries continue to suffer from armed conflict, climate change and a food and nutrition crisis, the EU is providing €152.05 million to help people in need in the region”, said the European Commission in a statement.

Combined with last year’s funding, humanitarian assistance to the Sahel has been supported with over €423 million in EU aid, making the EU a leading donor in the region, the statement said.

Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis management, said, “The EU’s vital work in the Sahel continues to help the most vulnerable, in one of the poorest and most fragile regions in the world, where humanitarian needs are worryingly on the rise. Our new aid package will provide food assistance, emergency health care, clean water, shelter, protection and education for children.”

“To ensure aid saves lives, it is essential that humanitarian workers have full access to do their job,” the Commissioner insisted.

EU funding from this aid package will go to Burkina Faso (€15.7 million); Cameroon (€17.8 million); Chad (€27.2 million); Mali (23.55 million); Mauritania (€11.15 million), Niger (€23.15 million); and Nigeria (€28 million). An additional €5.5 million is allocated to a regional project that fights malnutrition in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, the EU said.

According to EU estimates, some 10.45 million people would need emergency food aid in 2019 in the Sahel region, which is marked by extreme vulnerability and poverty, due to successive droughts and armed conflicts.