(Gemini Audio Overview)
(sahara-sahel.org) – The Sahel region is currently facing a worsening humanitarian crisis due to armed conflict, climate shocks, and mass displacement. As of 2025, over 31.3 million people in the region need urgent assistance, including 5.7 million internally displaced persons and 2.4 million refugees. Humanitarian efforts are severely underfunded, having secured only 18% of the required $4.9 billion. This has forced humanitarian agencies to reduce their response, targeting just over 10 million people instead of the previously planned 20.6 million. In a separate development, three Sahel nations—Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—recently formed the Alliance of Agricultural Seed Producers of the Sahel (APSA-Sahel) to strengthen regional food sovereignty and agricultural resilience. The alliance aims to reduce dependency on imported seeds by promoting climate-resilient seed systems and enabling cross-border seed exchange.