AA / Bamako / Amarana Maiga
Some 27 million people are going hungry in the West African zone, hit by its worst food crisis in a decade, Oxfam said in a statement on Monday, stressing that 11 million more people might be pushed to hunger for the next three months.
“West Africa is hit by its worst food crisis in a decade, with 27 million people suffering from hunger. This number might reach 38 million by June – a new historic high and already an increase of more than a third on last year, unless urgent action is taken,” Oxfam International said.
According to the document “this alert is issued by eleven international organizations in response to the new analyzes of the Harmonized Framework (CH) of March 2022, ahead of the virtual conference on the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and Lake Chad organized by the Union. European Union and the Sahel and West Africa Club”.
And to add: “Food crises have multiplied over the past decade, throughout the West African region, particularly in Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mali and Nigeria. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of people in need of emergency food aid has almost quadrupled, from 7 to 27 million”.
Assalama Dawalack Sidi, Oxfam’s regional director for West and Central Africa, said that “cereal production in parts of the Sahel has fallen by around a third compared to last year.
Family food is running out. Drought, floods, conflict and the economic impacts of Covid-19 have forced millions of people off their land.”
Philippe Adapoe, director of the organization “Save the Children” for West and Central Africa, for his part indicated that “the situation forces hundreds of thousands of people to move to different communities and live in host families who are themselves already living in difficult conditions. There is not enough food, let alone nutritious enough food for children. We must help them urgently because their health, their future and even their lives are in danger”.
The statement further underlines that “malnutrition continues to increase in the Sahel”, explaining that the United Nations has estimated that 6.3 million children aged 6 to 59 months will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, including more of 1.4 million children in the phase of severe acute malnutrition compared to 4.9 million children suffering from acute malnutrition in 2021.
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