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Internal Displacement in the Sahel Tops 2 Million as Armed Conflict
Intensifies

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA - The U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, is warning that countries
   in the Sahel have reached a breaking point as unrelenting violence in
   the region has caused more than 2 million people to become displaced
   inside their own countries for the first time ever.

   Humanitarian needs in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger are surging as
   escalating violence sends an increasing number of people fleeing for
   their lives. The U.N. refugee agency reports internal displacement in
   the Sahel has quadrupled in just two years and is rising.
   Already this year, the agency reports violence in Niger and Burkina
   Faso has forced more than 21,000 people to flee their homes. The Sahel
   also is hosting more than 850,000 refugees, mainly from Mali. This
   creates an additional layer of insecurity and increases the burden of
   impoverished communities.

   UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says the security situation in this
   volatile area is hampering efforts to reach many people in need of
   assistance.

   "This is a region where so many crises converge. You have on the one
   hand the displacement and armed conflict," Cheshirkov said. "You have
   also extreme poverty. You have the pandemic. You also have climatic
   changes that are forcing people to move and are affecting those that
   are already displaced. So, the situation needs more attention and quite
   urgently so."

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