Oct. 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the Sahel countries are facing an abyss of “despair” due to the effects of climate change and armed conflicts, which have also fueled tensions in local communities, mainly in those that house displaced people.
The new president of the ICRC, Mirjana Spoljaric, who has concluded a visit to the region, has perceived an increase in tensions, with families “desperate for a better quality of life”. In Mali, “I was with women who had to bury their children while fleeing their village,” she explained.
Bintou was left a widow after her husband died of thirst on the run and lives in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Gao with five of her ten children — the other five are in different parts of the region. “Since the 2012 crisis, we have not had peace again,” she lamented.
“The armed fighters killed all the men, our husbands, our sons and daughters, and raped some women,” he recalled.
Some 4.5 million people have been forced from their homes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, an increase of 200 percent in two years. 80 percent of the population in the area depends on the primary sector, so displacement also implies losing their livelihood.
With “limited” humanitarian assistance, many people “do not see a way out”, which is why Spoljaric has called for “breaking this vicious circle of climate change and violence that prevents residents from living off their land”, according to a statement from the organization.
“In times of global instability and growing humanitarian challenges, we must do everything in our power so that the Sahel countries are not forgotten,” said the head of the ICRC, who advocates specific investments to, for example, improve resilience to climate change.
