The EU will mobilise almost €524 million in 2022 to help the countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria) cope with a major food crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. This is support that will combine humanitarian aid with longer-term development assistance, focusing on sustainable food systems.
The European Commission said on Wednesday 6 April that it had announced this at the online event on food and nutrition security in the region, which was co-organised by the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC), the EU and the Global Network Against Food Crises (see EUROPE 12926/29, 12925/13).
Of this amount, €67 million is additional humanitarian aid, which will bring the total of the EU’s humanitarian support to these countries to €240 million, while the UN fears that the number of hungry people will reach a record 38.3 million by June.
“More than 31 million people will need emergency food aid this year,” warned the Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič, when explaining that humanitarian aid will not be enough.
To address the root causes of food insecurity and to promote sustainable food systems €134 million will be made available before the end of the year, while €654 million will be set aside for this purpose in 2021–2024 in the EU budget with respect to the seven countries.
The rest will come from the regional envelope for these African countries.
“We need to help our partners become more self-sufficient and work together to strengthen the multilateral food system”, commented the High Representative of the Union, Josep Borrell, in a statement.
This global approach is at the heart of the European Commission’s communications about food security (see EUROPE 12917/8) and its support for global coalitions for action (see EUROPE 12917/20). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)