The Italian Cooperation contributed to the region humanitarian aid programme being run by the CICR in Niger and northern Mali, in concert with the respective Red Cross Societies, on behalf of rural families in a region especially threatened by famine as a result of climate-related conditions.
Italy’s contribution to the CICR programme (amounting to approximately €19 million) is aimed at assisting the most vulnerable communities in the Sahel region, which has been affected by widespread natural disasters, especially in Niger and Mali and where the negative effects of the food crisis are most being felt. Efforts intend to raise subsistence to an acceptable level for the families most at risk, as well as to ensure their access to basic services, while at the same time strengthening their own ability to respond to the emergency.
Committee activities will focus on the most remote areas of the two countries, where an extreme food crisis has been exacerbated by frequent natural disasters, and where humanitarian interventions are scarce. Finally, wherever possible, efforts will concentrate on the serious humanitarian crisis developing at the border between Niger and Libya with the mass influx of refugees forced to flee Libya during the conflict, and for whom the local authorities have not provided any form of assistance.
