The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has called for immediate action to prevent a catastrophic hunger crisis in Africa’s Sahel region.
Development Diaries reports that the UN agency made the call following shortfalls in funding which has left millions stranded without humanitarian aid.
According to WFP, only about half of the 11.6 million people initially targeted, out of the 19.2 million in need of humanitarian aid, will be reached as the lean season sets in Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and northeast Nigeria.
Food insecurity has reached a ten-year high in West and Central Africa, affecting 47.2 million people during the June-August lean season.
Malnutrition rates have also surged, with 16.5 million children under age five set to be acutely malnourished this year, an 83 percent rise from the 2015–2022 average.
While climate change has had a severe impact on the region, armed conflict remains the key driver of hunger, forcing population displacement as communities seek security and access to food.
‘We’re in a tragic situation. During this year’s lean season, millions of families will lack sufficient food reserves to sustain them until the next harvests in September and many will receive little to no assistance to tide them through the gruelling months ahead’, WFP’s Regional Director ad interim, for Western Africa, Margot Vandervelden, said.
Due to the funding crunch, WFP has been forced to roll out assistance for just 6.2 million of the most vulnerable people, with a focus on refugees, newly displaced people, malnourished children under five, pregnant women and breastfeeding women and girls.
‘We must take immediate action to prevent a massive slide into catastrophic hunger’, Vandervelden added.
‘We need a twin-track approach to stop hunger in the Sahel – we must address acute hunger through humanitarian assistance, while tackling the structural causes of food insecurity by increasing investments in resilient food systems and expanding government social protection programmes’.
With the lean season approaching, millions are projected to resort to desperate measures including engaging in survival sex, early marriage, or joining non-state armed groups.
Source: WFP
Photo source: UNICEF Ethiopia