The Economic Community of West African States has called for urgent humanitarian aid to nine million community citizens displaced by conflicts and climate change disasters.

Mohammed Ibrahim, head of ECOWAS Humanitarian Affairs Division, made the plea at a mid-term consultation meeting of the regional committee for disaster management in West Africa (GECEAO) in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to Mr Ibrahim, GECEAO aims to develop and implement a unified strategy that builds community resilience to natural and man-made disasters.

“In recent times, humanitarian actors have raised the alarm for the escalating humanitarian needs of nearly nine million people in West Africa displaced due to increasing violence, insecurity and extreme weather events.

“People have become displaced multiple times, exacerbating their hardships. The increasing interest of ECOWAS in disaster risk management has mainly been driven by efforts to fulfil its peace and security mandates, including the management of the humanitarian outcomes of conflicts,” Mr Ibrahim explained.

The official added, “The ability of member states to respond effectively to disasters depends on their internal response capabilities, both civil and non-civilian, and the ability to rapidly deploy such response mechanisms to emergencies before external assistance arrives.”

Mr Ibrahim noted that the magnitude of vulnerability and exposure to hazards and losses from disasters in West Africa and the Sahel is expected to increase over the next decade.

He said that countries were currently vulnerable to floods, land degradation, water scarcity, and coastal erosion, which had increased in occurrence and severity due to the adverse effects of climate change.

Zubaida Umar, director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said Nigeria was already working to enhance disaster risk management to reduce shocks and enhance population resilience.

According to Ms Umar, Nigeria stands to benefit from the initiative, which aims to guide the addressing of the cumulative destructive impacts of disaster risks.

She said the ECOWAS sub-region was confronted with diverse disasters which required collective efforts with enhanced coordination to address them.

“With this disaster scenario, the regional recovery roadmap, the regional resilience strategy, the roster of experts, among others, will have to be deployed for significant progress to be recorded in the management of disaster risk in West Africa in line with ECOWAS goal,” she said.

(NAN)