By Gloria Ikibah
The European Union has given the sum of €5.4 million in humanitarian aid to support communities affected by severe floods in the Sahel and Lake Chad regions.
This aid is expected to benefit Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, and Burkina Faso, where more than 4.4 million people have been impacted.
The recent floods caused extensive damage, destroying homes, health facilities, schools, roads, and agricultural lands, and increasing the risk of waterborne diseases due to poor access to clean water, hygiene, and sanitation.
The funding is aimed at delivering urgent food aid, shelter, clean water, sanitation, and other essential services in the hardest-hit areas. The allocation is as follows: Chad (€1 million), Niger (€1.35 million), Nigeria (€1.1 million), Mali (€1 million), Cameroon (€650,000), and Burkina Faso (€300,000). This is in addition to the €232 million in humanitarian support already provided to these countries earlier in the year.
The EU and its partners have been responding to the floods, adjusting existing initiatives and contributing to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF).
Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, highlighted the severity of the flooding, and stated that heavy rains in the Sahel and Lake Chad regions have displaced millions and caused widespread devastation.
Lenarčič reaffirmed EU’s commitment to providing relief to those most affected.
The flooding in some areas has reached unprecedented levels, with Mali seeing the highest rainfall since 1967, and over 1 million people affected in Niger and 1.5 million in Chad.
In Nigeria, the northern regions are already facing food shortages due to conflict, insecurity, and inflation, and the failure of a dam near Maiduguri has worsened the situation. So far, around 641,600 people have been displaced, with more rainfall expected. The risk of cholera is also increasing due to the lack of access to proper sanitation in the flood-affected areas.