CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The rise in violence in West Africa’s Sahel region is a result of unequal access to wealth rather than clashes of religious beliefs, a new report from Catholic Relief Services said.
“While the crisis may be painted by some as religious or ethnic in nature, it’s actually a result of perceived inequality and a growing discontent with government,” CRS said in a Sept. 30 press statement.
“The daily atrocities we’re seeing reflect an extremely complex reality that is rooted in despair,” said Patrick Williams, CRS program manager for the Sahel Peace Initiative. “We’re talking about communities where the number of unemployed people far exceeds the number of those able to earn a meaningful living.”
The initiative is a multicountry Catholic response to the crisis that focuses on Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are at the epicenter of the violence, but also includes neighboring Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Although Catholics comprise a small percentage of the total population in Sahel, the Church is respected by the population “regardless of their faith and is seen as a neutral, objective and nonpolitical actor across the region,” said the CRS report, titled “Steps Towards Peace.”
Lack of accountable political leadership “has eroded faith in democracy and civic engagement,” the report said.
United Nations figures show that more than 20 million people in Sahel now need life-saving aid in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, CRS said.
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