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Escalating violence in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger has forced some 1.8 million children to flee, a fivefold increase over the past five years,” Save the Children said”.
The organization counted the number of displaced children in the three Sahel countries by analysing figures from UNHCR, national governments and the International Organization for Migration. The number of children forced into displacement has risen from about 321,000 in 2019 to 1.8 million.
“The largely forgotten crisis in the Central Sahel remains one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world, and what makes its consequences even more dire is a children’s crisis,” said Vishna Shah, WHO Regional Director.
“Millions of children are displaced fleeing unimaginable deadly violence. They were originally living in one of the most difficult places to grow in the world before losing their homes, communities and everything they knew.”
Conflicts in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have led to a 12-fold increase in the number of children seeking refuge in Côte d’Ivoire, from some 2,450 at the end of 2022 to around 29,700 today.
According to the United Nations, children account for 40 percent of the world’s displaced people, but a larger proportion in West and Central Africa. According to the organization’s analysis, they account for about 58 percent of those forced to flee.
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