New International Rescue Committee (IRC) data shows thousands of women and girls at risk as aid cuts cripple gender-based violence services in West Africa

• Across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, over 55% of gender-based violence (GBV) survivors supported in early 2025, have been left without continued access to essential, safe and confidential services for their recovery following broad funding cuts.

• In Menaka, Mali, nearly 90% of survivors’ cases are still waiting for full support.

• In Burkina Faso, 52% of GBV cases remain unaddressed in the Sahel and North regions, with over 500 women and girls at risk of losing access to dignity kits, awareness sessions, and case management at the time of analysis.

• In Nigeria, between 42% and 67% of GBV cases remain “open” following program closures across Borno, Adamawa, Katsina, and Zamfara States, leaving hundreds of women and girls without access to critical support.

• In Niger, 26% of GBV cases in Diffa and Tillabéri are no longer being actively managed. In Balayera, IRC was the only actor providing protection services.

More than half of all survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) have lost access to critical support services following the initial complete suspension of essential funding in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigeria, according to data collected by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). As the protection gap widens, which leaves women and girls increasingly vulnerable to violence, isolation, and long-term harm, the IRC urges the international community of donor governments to significantly increase funding for organizations responding to GBV.

The abrupt suspension of case management, which came after large funding cuts in the first half of the year, deprived survivors of a vital service that had supported them from the moment they disclosed violence. Many had been accessing safe spaces where they could speak freely and receive life-saving medical care, psychosocial support, and legal assistance. Suddenly, survivors, many still grappling with ongoing trauma or threats, were left without anywhere to turn, their recovery interrupted, their choices curtailed, and their needs unmet.

Services shut down entirely for three to five months, depending on the country. Now, even as some programs have been brought back to partial operation, fewer than 55% of specialized GBV caseworkers have been rehired, meaning there is now limited coverage of GBV services in those locations.

Safiatou,* who lost access to IRC services for women at risk in eastern Mali, said:

“With the end of the project, I feel isolated. I keep my problems to myself because this project was special. It always gave us the opportunity to share our fears and concerns through listening sessions and awareness activities that addressed the challenges we face. The staff always responded to our concerns: they were like doctors to us girls.”

Yolande Longang, Women’s Protection and Empowerment Technical Advisor for IRC in West Africa, said: 

“When services were shut down, survivors were left in the dark. With urgent medical care and emotional support disrupted, survivors were left to endure their trauma in isolation. In contexts where access to comprehensive protection services including health, psychosocial, legal, and community-based support is largely limited or unavailable, their suffering remained invisible and unaddressed. 

And when services finally resumed, in some locations, they were a shadow of what was needed. Even GBV case management was only partially restored, and support was limited to the most critical cases, those involving clinical management of sexual assault or imminent risk to life. This left countless survivors without the help they urgently needed, including girls at risk of child marriage and women experiencing intimate partner violence.”

GBV frontline workers were confronted with cases where survivors accessed services with significant delays; this is particularly troubling in cases of sexual assault, with GBV responders unable to provide the essential care within the critical 72-hour window following the assault. In regions where the IRC was the primary or sole provider of GBV services, the suspension has left a dangerous vacuum. With limited coverage and resources from alternative actors, many communities now rely on under-resourced local mechanisms that struggle to meet the demand for essential GBV support.

As humanitarian actors face severe funding cuts, administrative barriers, and security constraints, many open cases are left without follow-up care. Community-based organizations, though trained, lack the resources to fully assume service delivery, and government structures are too under-resourced to absorb the growing caseload. 

Without urgent action to restore funding or mobilize alternative support, hard-won gains – from having appropriate levels of staffing to respond to GBV to working with communities to see GBV as a rights violation and women and girls as equal actors – risk being reversed. Operating within a broader ecosystem of humanitarian services, continued reductions in foreign aid are placing unprecedented strain on local organizations and decentralized systems already operating at their limits.

Urgent and sustained funding is essential to support GBV response organizations, including local organizations, to help close the widening gap in resources needed to protect women and girls. At the same time, it is essential to strengthen local structures and systems that provide vital support to survivors. In this world of hyper-prioritization in humanitarian response, we remind all actors that GBV prevention and response are lifesaving services and must be included in all response plans.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Rescue Committee (IRC) .