Armed violence and insecurity intensified across Mali in May 2025, particularly in the regions of Timbuktu, Gao, Mopti, and Ménaka, triggering a sharp rise in displacement. The number of internally displaced persons reached nearly 380,000, a 14.4 per cent increase compared to the same time last year. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the crisis, facing heightened risks of gender-based violence (GBV) including sexual violence, exploitation, and forced marriage, while also struggling to access essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Currently, less than 25 per cent of health facilities in crisis-affected regions provide comprehensive SRH care or GBV survivor support, and nearly half of specialized GBV services remain closed nationwide.
UNFPA Mali continues to scale up its humanitarian response, supporting 86 health facilities, six women and girls’ safe spaces, and seven one-stop centers in the hardest-hit regions. In May alone, mobile health teams reached nearly 2,900 people in displacement sites — 80 per cent of them women and girls — with SRH and GBV services. Midwives provided antenatal, postnatal, and delivery care, while dignity kits and reproductive health supplies were distributed in flood-affected and conflict-impacted areas. UNFPA also trained health personnel and community members on emergency SRH and GBV response, including the clinical management of rape, and coordinated with women-led organizations to localize and strengthen the GBV referral system.
However, the response remains severely underfunded. UNFPA requires US$16.5 million to meet urgent SRH and GBV needs in Mali in 2025, but only US$2.9 million has been secured, representing just 18 per cent of the total requirement. Without urgent additional funding, 82 per cent of the planned response remains at risk, potentially leaving thousands of women and girls without life-saving care and protection in an increasingly volatile and under-resourced environment.
