Climate Events, COVID-19 Strain Displaced 1.5m People In Central Sahel, UAE’s Support Appreciated: UNHCR

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 20th Oct, 2020) ABU DHABI, 20th October 2020 (WAM) – Climate events and COVID-19 pandemic are worsening the living conditions of more than 1.5 million people who have been displaced due to violence in the Central Sahel region, according to a senior official of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

"The Central Sahel - Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – is at the epicentre of one of the world's fastest-growing displacement and protection crises. A political, security and humanitarian crisis has displaced millions," Ioli Kimyaci, UNHCR Representative in Burkina Faso, told Emirates news Agency, WAM.

Extreme poverty caused by climate events and COVID

"It is important to highlight the impact of environmental change in the region. In recent months, devastating floods have killed dozens and left hundreds of thousands in urgent need of shelter, clean water and health service," she said in an email interview from Burkina Faso on Tuesday.

Kimyaci stressed that climate events have exacerbated the vulnerabilities of host and displaced communities who are already grappling with extreme poverty, food insecurity, and armed conflict.

"This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has also compounded this situation. Lockdowns and other COVID-19 prevention measures have pushed an additional 6 million people in the region into extreme poverty, with 4.8 million people – most of them children – in need of urgent nutrition assistance," she explained.

A Ministerial Roundtable on the region hosted by the governments of Denmark and Germany, the European Union and the United Nations on Tuesday is taking place at a critical time, Kimyaci said.

"Solutions – not only through the security lens - are urgently needed. Governance reforms need to be scaled up with the same urgency as lifesaving interventions and with appropriate resources," Kimyaci said.

Meanwhile, humanitarian action also needs to be strengthened as UNHCR needs continued financial support for its operation, she said.

"Humanitarian appeals in the region are just 35 percent funded. This pledging conference is an opportunity for donors to demonstrate commitment before it is too late," the UNHCR official said.

She expressed her gratitude to the UAE for its generous support to UNHCR, with more than US$80 million contributions since 2010 in different locations, with life-saving intervention for millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, targeting education, health response, food and protection.

"The government of the UAE also hosts UNHCR’s largest Global Stockpile at the International Humanitarian City, IHC, in Dubai. Through its presence in Dubai, UNHCR is able to rapidly deliver life-saving assistance to people in need within 72 hours of the outbreak of a crisis anywhere in the world, in which the government has contributed greatly to support UNHCR’s emergency shipments to countries in MENA, Africa and beyond," Kimyaci explained.

Latest help from UAE An aid consignment donated in June by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, brought much needed shelter equipment and plastic sheets that enabled 5,000 people to receive shelter in all of the five regions of Burkina Faso, she revealed.

"This support was timely as it arrived in the midst of the rainy season, with heavy rainfalls and strong winds, and helped better protect these families from possible floods by providing shelter to those without one or strengthening existing ones," the UNHCR official said.

"We are extremely grateful to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid for his donation, which made a real difference in the lives of those most in need," she emphasised.

Surging violence Elaborating on the crisis in the region, Kimyaci said more than 1.5 million people have fled violence in the region, including over 650,000 forced from their homes this year alone.

In Burkina Faso, over one million people – more than one in every 20 inhabitants – have fled surging violence inside the country, nearly half displaced this year, she said.

UNHCR was able to provide shelter assistance to over 1,600 forcibly displaced persons. The COVID-19 pandemic further impacted children’s access to education. In Burkina Faso, some 2,500 schools had already been forced to close due to violence, thus affecting almost 350,000 students.

Solar donor support is essential to enable continued education, including through distance learning, Kimyaci said.

Across the Sahel region, some 12,000 displaced and host community children have continued their education through distance learning, for instance with solar radios to listen to education programmes.

"The needs remain huge and we must make sure we are to respond to them not just this year, but next year as well," she said.