More than $20 million goes from CERF to underfunded crises in West Africa

Dakar, 7 February 2008: The United Nations have allocated more than $20 million to four underfunded crises in West Africa to address immediate humanitarian needs.

This amount was disbursed from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) created in March 2006 for a faster, more effective and more impartial response to the humanitarian emergencies in order to reduce the loss of human lives. CERF funding is made available to United Nations agencies and to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The current allocation has been divided as follows:

Burkina Faso: $3.4 million,
Côte d'Ivoire: $7 million,
Mali: $3.2 million,
Niger: $6.5 million.

'Poverty, hunger and disease are the many silent killers often ignored by the headlines, but against which we must remain mobilised' said Hervé Ludovic de Lys, Head of the Regional Office for West Africa of the Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 'The CERF allows us to adjust the imbalance in the distribution of aid, imbalance which could consequently leave in need millions of victims of the forgotten crises,' he added.

Between 2006 and 2007, the CERF allocated about $61 million to humanitarian projects in 10 countries of West Africa to enable initial response to emergencies and neglected crises as well as in the event of a rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

For further information, please call: Christina Bennett, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 8059, mobile +1 917 435 8617; Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570; Amadou Kane, OCHA-Dakar, +221 33 869 85 14, mobile +221 77 639 20 18. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.