UN launches 2024 global humanitarian appeal: $7.6 billion required to support 32.3 million people in dire need across West and Central Africa

• West and Central Africa is the stage for some of the world’s most complex, tangled, and protracted humanitarian crises. Some 32.3 million people in the region are targeted to receive humanitarian aid and protection next year.

• Eight countries in the region have humanitarian response plans for 2024: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

• By the end of 2023, around 22 million people in the region will have received life-saving assistance, but a lack of funds means millions more vulnerable people could not be reached.

• Humanitarian needs have increased relative to 2023, but the humanitarian community has taken the decision to target those most in need.

Dakar, 11 December 2023 – On behalf of more than 1,900 humanitarian partners worldwide, the United Nations (UN) today launched its global appeal for 2024, and calls in particular for USD 7.6 billion for West and Central Africa, to help 32.3 million people with life-saving assistance and protection.

The impacts of brutal violence, political instability, climate change, chronic poverty, and fraying social fabric are resulting in catastrophic hunger, massive displacement and disease outbreaks, and render daily survival extremely challenging for 63.2 million vulnerable women, children and men across this region.

Protection remains one of the most pressing needs. Every day, from northern Mali to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, across the Central Sahel region and the Lake Chad Basin, families are atacked by non-state armed groups or caught in the crossfire of warring parties and intercommunal violence. Fearing for their lives, they have no choice but to flee their homes. There are currently more than 15 million people in West and Central Africa who have been forcibly displaced, of whom over 80 per cent are displaced within their own country’s borders.
Tens of millions do not know where their next meal will come from, and nearly 1 million people were affected by flooding during 2023. The consequences in terms of health, education and resilience are dire.

“This year, close to one thousand aid organisations working across West and Central Africa have worked around the clock to identify the most pressing humanitarian needs, and together, we have designed robust plans to save as many lives as possible,” said Charles Bernimolin, the Regional Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “However, because of funding shortfalls, growing insecurity, and other access challenges, aid workers in the region are increasingly struggling to provide the protection and assistance required.”

Funding shortfalls in 2023 meant that, globally, humanitarian organizations reached less than two thirds of the people they aimed to assist. The effects of this and other challenges know no borders. Escalating violence in the Central Sahel, for example, is spilling over towards the south, and pushing people mainly from Burkina Faso, to seek refuge in the coastal countries of the Gulf of Guinea, namely Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.

“Humanitarians are saving lives, fighting hunger, protecting children, pushing back epidemics, and providing shelter and sanitation in many of the world’s most inhumane contexts. But the necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with the needs,” said Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. He warns that “If we cannot provide more help in 2024, people will pay for it with their lives.”

Aid organisations have decided that their 2024 plans will be more narrowly focused on those in most urgent need of assistance. However, the ambition to reach all those identified as being in urgent need has not changed, and the call todonors to dig deep and fully fund all the response plans is as urgent as ever.

Notes to Editors

The Global Humanitarian Overview is a comprehensive assessment of global humanitarian needs, and it provides a snapshot of current and future trends in humanitarian action for large-scale resource mobilization.
In West and Central Africa, the number of people in need targeted under each country’s 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan and the associated financial requirements are as follows:

• Burkina Faso: 3.8 million people targeted, US $935 million • Cameroon: 2.3 million people targeted, US $376 million • Central African Republic: 1.9 million people targeted, US $393.5 million • Chad: 4.6 million people targeted, US $1.18 billion • Democratic Republic of the Congo: 8.7 million people targeted, US $2.6 billion • Mali: 3.9 million people targeted, US $676.5 million • Niger: 2.7 million people targeted, US $604 million • Nigeria: 4.4 million people targeted, US $860 million

Media resources

• Global Humanitarian Overview 2024 (through humanitarianaction.info)

• Photos for download

• Video edit of press briefing by Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths available on UNifeed

Media contacts for OCHA West and Central Africa:

In Dakar: Yasmina Guerda, yasmina.guerda@un.org, +221 77 110 28 13