The European Commission announced an increase of €40 million in additional humanitarian funding to the Sahel, bringing its response to the food crisis to €337 million. In addition, it also announced the launching of a new partnership on strengthening the resilience of the Sahel to future crises.

€40 million will be the additional humanitarian aid added, bringing its response to the food crisis to €337 million to the Sahel. In April 2012, €9 million from the EU funds was addressed to respond to the new humanitarian needs in northern Mali. The funding increase comes just as the European Commission is hosting a high level gathering on the Sahel hunger crisis. This meeting aims to launch a new partnership on strengthening the resilience of the Sahel to future crises. The initiative, called AGIR Sahel (Alliance Globale pour l'Initiative Resilience), has as main aim to make sure that the people in the Sahel can better cope with future droughts.

The funding proposed by the Commission would go towards blanket feeding programmes for children and distribution of food to the poorest households. Where food is still available on local markets, the funding will be used to distribution money to people to buy food for themselves. Part of this funding will also help provide food, water, health care and shelter for the estimated 400,000 Malians displaced by conflict.

The Commission provided support as soon as the warning signs for hunger began to flash in 2011, and has remained at the forefront of international efforts to reduce emergency needs leading up to the peak of the crisis in the coming weeks. It is the leading humanitarian donor in this year's Sahel food crisis; it has reached nearly 7 million people with its funding.