Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The EU is allocating €331 million in humanitarian efforts to reach the populations of the Horn of Africa, a region facing multiple and overlapping humanitarian crises with more than 50 million people in urgent need of food assistance.
The European Commission said it will primarily target food insecurity as well as address the needs of displaced persons and refugees, disaster preparedness, and education in emergencies.
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa, which includes countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Sudan, has been plagued by violence for many years. The region has experienced a range of conflicts, including civil wars, inter-ethnic and inter-clan conflicts, and insurgencies.
The EU funding will support humanitarian projects in Djibouti (€500 000), Ethiopia (€60.5 million), Kenya (€12.5 million), Somalia (€72 million), South Sudan (€82 million), Sudan (€73 million) and Uganda (€30 million).
Somalia has been particularly affected by violence and insecurity. The country has been without a functioning central government since 1991, and various factions and armed groups have been vying for power and control.
The conflict has resulted in widespread displacement, poverty, and human rights abuses.
“Our response is not limited to funding – in 2022, for example, we organized a series of Humanitarian Air Bridge flights delivering life-saving aid to hard-to-reach areas of Somalia,” said Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management.
Outspoken MEP Clare Daly accused the EU bloc, together with allies, of militarizing the Horn of Africa and turning an impossible situation worse. Speaking during a parliamentary speech last October, Daly said that France, the US, China, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, have a presence in the tiny area of Djibouti alone, militarizing a region already destabilized.
“We flood the place with weapons, hand over the profits to European arms companies, and charge the bill to our citizens. And then with the carnage, we go back in and we do it all again. It’s a racket,” said Daly, noting that the region is packed with mercenaries.
Escalating conflict in the Sahel
On March 17, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published a damning report revealing that there are around ten million children in central Sahel currently in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
The emergency is due to the escalating conflict in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, with violence now spreading into neighboring countries, endangering another four million children.
“Children are increasingly caught up in the armed conflict as victims of intensifying military clashes, or targeted by non-state armed groups,” said UNICEF regional director for Western and Central Africa, Marie-Pierre Poirier.
The UNICEF report states that these armed groups are now “sabotaging water networks…cutting power lines” and “in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have been directly targeting schools, in an accelerating attack on education” leading to school closures.
The report further expressed that “since 2021, non-state armed groups have destroyed food reserves in a region that is among the hungriest and most malnourished on the planet” creating major food scarcity.
Displacement camps
According to UNICEF and UN data, “this armed conflict has driven nearly 2.7 million people off their land into displacement camps or vulnerable host communities across the three countries” and “the insecurity and displacement [is] also spilling over … placing nearly 4 million children at risk in four West African coastal countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.”
One of the main drivers of violence in the Sahel is the presence of extremist groups such as Boko Haram, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
These groups have been responsible for numerous attacks on civilians, government officials, and security forces, as well as for kidnappings, extortion, and other criminal activities.
