The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for nearly $2 billion to provide vital assistance to over 24 million boys and girls across West and Central Africa in 2024.
The appeal anticipates that 46.7 million children in the region will face another year of humanitarian need, primarily due to ongoing conflicts in Central Sahel, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and displacements into Chad prompted by the war in Sudan.
What you should know
- Felicité Tchibindat, UNICEF Regional Director, emphasized that West and Central Africa house several critically underfunded emergencies, representing some of the most neglected humanitarian crises globally for children.
- The $1.89 million appeal aims to reach approximately 24.1 million children in 2024, an increase from 23.5 million in 2023.
- The aid will encompass crucial elements such as lifesaving nutrition supplies, clean water, education, child protection services, and humanitarian cash transfers for households.
- Over a third of the funding is allocated to address malnutrition, given the persistently high prevalence of wasting in children under five, particularly in Sahel countries.
- Areas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and northwest Nigeria are experiencing emergency levels of child wasting. UNICEF’s appeal underscores the urgency of addressing the pressing needs of children in these regions.
In a related development, the outgoing head of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Petteri Taalas, who completed his tenure on Friday, urged global leaders to heed scientific evidence on climate change and expedite the transition to renewable energy sources.
- Taalas emphasized the pivotal role of WMO and the scientific community in confronting climate change, asserting that such expertise is crucial to humanity’s response to its most significant challenge.
- While acknowledging the historic agreement at the recent COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, which recognized the necessity of transitioning from fossil fuels, Taalas stressed that more action was urgently needed.
- He called for a reduction in the production and consumption of fossil fuels and an acceleration of the shift to renewable energy, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
