UN refugee agency spokesman Boris Cheshirkov called on Friday for joint international action to put an end to the decade-long Sahel armed conflict which has forced over 2.5 million people to flee their homes
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2022) UN refugee agency spokesman Boris Cheshirkov called on Friday for joint international action to put an end to the decade-long Sahel armed conflict which has forced over 2.5 million people to flee their homes.
According to the UNHCR, those people are fleeing their homes in increased numbers due to conflicts taking place from Ethiopia to Burkina Faso. Most of them plan to reach northern African countries with the ultimate goal of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe in the pursuit of a better life.
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for concerted international action to end armed conflict in Africa's Central Sahel region, which has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes in the last decade," Cheshirkov said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The spokesperson also said that since 2013, internal displacement jumped tenfold from 217,000 to 2.1 million by late 2021. The number of refugees in the Central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger at the moment accounts for 410,000.
"In Burkina Faso alone, the total number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) rose to more than 1.5 million by the end of 2021. ... In Niger, the number of IDPs in the regions of Tillaberi and Tahoua increased 53 per cent in the last 12 months. In neighbouring Mali, more than 400,000 people are displaced inside the country - a 30 per cent increase from the previous year," the spokesperson said.
Insecurity-driven humanitarian crisis is quickly deteriorating, worsened by rampant poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis that has seen temperatures rising 1.5 times faster than the global average.
