UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and humanitarian partners on Monday launched the 2022 humanitarian response plan for Mali that seeks 686 million U.S. dollars, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The humanitarian response plan aims to help 5.3 million most vulnerable people out of the 7.5 million people in humanitarian need. The level of needs is higher than at any point since 2012, said OCHA.
The year 2021 was characterized by a deterioration in the humanitarian situation due to growing insecurity in the central region of the country. The security crisis is now expanding to the southern region. Violence and climate shocks have increased the number of people facing severe food insecurity. Some 1.8 million people will need food assistance in 2022, 51 percent more than in 2021, it said.
Civilian casualties also sharply increased in northern and central Mali in 2021 with civilians increasingly the target of violent attacks by armed groups and increased inter-communal violence and the risks posed by improvised explosive devices, it added.
Mali was one of the 10 least funded humanitarian response plans in 2021. The request for 563 million dollars to assist 4.7 million people was only 38 percent met, with the deficit in funding preventing a timely, at-scale and appropriate response, said OCHA.
Despite mounting challenges, humanitarian organizations reached more than 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021, it said. ■
