Since 8 March 2022, the Ménaka region in eastern Mali, at the border with Niger, has seen heavy fighting between armed groups signatories to the 2015 peace agreement (the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), the Tuareg Self-Defense Group Imghad (GATIA)) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Violent attacks against local populations have resulted in the killing of at least 335 civilians, while several dozen are reported kidnapped.

In Mali, the violence has led to massive population displacements towards the town of Ménaka (931 households, i.e. more than 5,000 people) and Inekar (around 500 households or 3,000 people), including several unaccompanied and orphan children.

On the Niger side, more than 9,000 people (1,512 households) have moved to Abala, Tillaberi region. This includes both Malian refugees and Niger internally displaced people, IDPs living close to the Malian border. 

DG ECHO partners are providing multisectoral emergency assistance in Ménaka, Inekar and Abala, but the Tamalat area, where the violence started, is still inaccessible to humanitarian workers.