Humanitarian emergencies in Africa are a permanent source of concern for the continent, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat has said.
Mahamat, while addressing the AU Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit and Pledging Conference on Friday, said humanitarian emergencies in Africa are numerous, diverse and geographically dispersed, and have become a permanent source of concern.
He said across the 15 most-affected AU member countries, 113 million people are waiting for emergency assistance in 2022.
East and Horn of Africa are currently hosting 4.5 million refugees, more than 75 per cent of whom have been affected by the reduction in food rations in 2021, Mahamat said.
Over the past two years, food requirements have increased by 70 per cent in the East and Horn of Africa, and more than 25 million people are in a situation of food insecurity, Mahamat said.
Mahamat said in West and Central Africa, there are 58 million people in a state of food insecurity, which is the highest level of food insecurity since 2016.
There are two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Central Africa. This figure represents a 30 per cent increase compared to 2020 and does not comprise the five million displaced persons in the Lake Chad Basin, he said.
In North Africa, more than 14 million people need humanitarian assistance, he added.
"The picture is not bright. Far from it," he said, as he emphasized that Africa's humanitarian condition is further affected by the annihilation of refugee empowerment efforts by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The paradox of humanitarianism lies in the discrepancy between the urgent nature of the situations of human distress to be taken care of and the poignant need to defer this care because of the lack of or insufficient financial resources," Mahamat told African leaders attending the high-level humanitarian summit.
African leaders on Friday met in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea to find durable solutions to address the continent's current humanitarian challenges as part of the AU Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit and Pledging Conference. (ANI/Xinhua)
( With inputs from ANI )
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