Brussels, Belgium, 16 February 2022 —  Ahead of the sixth EU-AU Summit on 17th-18th February, the IRC is urging the European Union and the African Union to transform their partnership in order to drive more peaceful, inclusive and sustainable development for all, including the most vulnerable groups. 

Last year, levels of insecurity reached alarming highs in the Central Sahel - comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - while the humanitarian and protection situation crashed to new lows. The EU has too often approached its activities in this region with a military or migration deterrence lens, leading to overly-securitised responses. However, data reveals that the protection situation in the Central Sahel is moving in the wrong direction - becoming more dangerous, not less, for civilians.

Since 2017, the number of violent attacks on unarmed civilians - including shootings, abductions and reports sexual violence - in the Central Sahel has soared by 620%, while the number of fatalities increased by 476% to more than 1,800 over the past five years. Women and girls face particular challenges, and reports of gender-based violence in Mali soared by 40% in 2021 alone. 

This uptick in violence, combined with a deadly brew of climate change and COVID-19 has tipped more than eight million people into severe food insecurity.  Temperatures in the region are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average, and access to basic social services - including food - is getting more difficult every day, contributing to record levels of displacement. Internal displacement has increased tenfold since 2013 to more than 2.2 million, with many people forced onwards into ever more perilous journeys.

Whilst the majority of Africa’s refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants stay within their region, some are forced onwards into ever more perilous journeys. Tragically, more than 1,553 people died or went missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2021. Meanwhile, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine inequity continues to devastate lives and livelihoods across Africa. As of January 2022, only 11% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated compared to 70% in the EU. 

We are calling on the EU and AU to seize the opportunity of this timely Summit to reset their partnership and build a new relationship that is rooted in protection, and drives progress towards resilience and the Sustainable Development Goals. A transformation is needed in three key areas:

  1. Show bold leadership and take concrete action to address humanitarian needs in Africa. In the Sahel, this will involve further ramping up humanitarian funding to match the escalating needs. The EU needs to prioritise efforts to address access barriers faced by humanitarian actors, as well as ensuring all partnerships - including security - are contingent on respect for international humanitarian law (IHL).
  2. Reset the approach to migration - shifting away from the current heavy focus on deterring and preventing people from reaching Europe, and forging a new approach centred on protection and rights. This Summit should be a chance to expand safe and legal routes to protection, support African countries in scaling up reintegration schemes, significantly ramp up EU resettlement, and harness the positive potential of migration.
  3. Forge an inclusive response and recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic. A truly inclusive recovery that ends vaccine inequity and promotes women’s economic empowerment, in particular, will be critical to addressing the political, social and economic fallouts of the pandemic, and driving meaningful progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This must include distributing life-saving vaccines through COVAX, waiving IP rights to the vaccine, and including refugees and other migrants in national recovery plans.

Harlem Desir, IRC Senior Vice President, Europe says: 

“As EU and AU leaders meet in Brussels this week, the rapidly escalating protection and food insecurity crisis in the Central Sahel should be a high priority on the agenda. We are highly concerned by the soaring number of violent attacks on civilians. The EU should channel all its diplomatic leverage towards upholding fundamental rights and IHL, especially in countries facing complex and protracted crises such as Niger and Mali.
 
We are also calling on the EU and AU to seize the opportunity of this summit to reset their partnership and priorities, putting protection, rights, food insecurity, and access to vaccines front and centre. Given that the pandemic has undermined hard-won progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, it’s critical that both the EU and AU urgently strive to get this important work back on track. This is a real opportunity to refocus on a transformative approach that advances peace and security, progresses towards a humane and sustainable partnership on migration, and prioritises a truly inclusive recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic”.