GENEVA, 29 April, 2021 (TON): On Tuesday, the United Nations and NGOs said that a record 29 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel, noting un-paralleled insecurity and hunger across six countries in the war-torn African region.

According to the statement, in Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and north-eastern Nigeria, five million more people than last year are in need of aid.

Much of the semi-arid Sahel stretches along the southern rim of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea has been plagued by violence for years.

A record 29 million people across the region need humanitarian assistance, the UN said in a statement, which was also signed by NGOs Norwegian Refugee Council and Plan International.

However, some 5.3 million people have been displaced by Sahel-wide insecurity, noting that thousands of schools had closed and 1.6 million children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition.