UNITED NATIONS, June 27 (Xinhua) -- A surge in armed violence is generating unprecedented levels of forced displacements and humanitarian emergencies in the Sahel region on the African continent, a UN spokesman said Thursday.
At a press briefing, UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in the past year, around 1 million people have fled their homes due to violence and insecurity in Sahel, a semi-arid strip below the Sahara desert.
Breaking the trend down, he said in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger, there are five times more displaced people compared to a year ago, and that the Lake Chad Basin is also witnessing a new spike in displacement and attacks.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that insecurity has never spread so fast, in such a vast area, and affected so many people.
OCHA is also concerned about a growing risk of spill-over beyond the Sahel and into other African countries.
The violence is disrupting livelihoods and deepening food insecurity, malnutrition and epidemics in affecting communities in Burkina Faso, in the far north of Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and the north-east Nigeria, Dujarric noted.
He added that OCHA is calling for additional support to ensure people's access to basic services, as well as flexible funding to build resilience and address the root causes of the region's crises.
