The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned on Friday that up to 18 million people in Africa’s Sahel region will face severe food insecurity in the next three months, the highest number since 2014. The seriousness of this situation sounded the alarm by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations, who explained that entire families are “on the verge of starvation.”
Martin Griffiths estimates that 7.7 million children under the age of 5 will suffer from malnutrition, of which 1.8 million are already severely malnourished. If aid operations are not increased, this figure could rise to 2.4 million by the end of the year.
Griffiths explained that this situation has been reached after “a combination of violence, insecurity, extreme poverty and food prices that reach record levels.” He added that “the recent increase in food prices due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine threatens turning a food security crisis into a humanitarian disaster. If we don’t act now, people will die.”
Four countries to the limit: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger
The situation has reached alarming levels in four Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger. In those countries, 1.7 million people are expected to experience levels of food insecurity reaching emergency status during the inter-harvest period between June and August.
This level of urgency describes a situation in which households experience “major shortages” in food consumption and high levels of acute malnutrition and deaths, and in which families are forced to sell their farming tools and other assets. they need to maintain their lives and livelihoods.
As Secretary-General António Guterres announced yesterday, in response to this crisis, the Office released $30 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund for the four countries, including $6 million for Burkina Faso and $8 million for Chad, Mali and Niger. Since the beginning of the year, the Fund has allocated almost 95 million dollars to the food crisis in the Sahel. That amount includes recent allocations for Mauritania ($4 million) and Nigeria ($15 million).
Finally, Griffiths stressed that “there is no time to lose.” “There are lives at stake. This injection of money will help agencies on the ground scale up emergency response to prevent a catastrophe. However, it is not a substitute for the larger contributions we need from donors to sustain our response and help build resilient communities.”
Earlier this year, the humanitarian community launched six humanitarian appeals for the Sahel totaling $3.8 billion that seek to provide aid for the entire region this year. The financing obtained at the end of May is less than 12%.
Huge obligations, low funds
The World Food Program, for its part, explained that the needs are “enormous”, but that the resources have “bottomed out”.
- In the hardest to reach and most food insecure areas of Burkina Faso, rations are currently 75% and in other areas they are cut in half.
- Low funding levels in Chad have forced the Program to reduce emergency rations for IDPs and refugees by 50% from June 2021. If no further contributions are received, transfer aid will be discontinued in early July in cash for refugees and internally displaced persons.
- In Mauritania, the Program will distribute limited assistance to refugees in the Mbera camp.
Similarly, he stressed that the situation is worsening as the annual lean season approaches, which runs from June to September, where it plans to provide assistance to more than 7.15 million people.
- Compared to 2021, the number of food insecure people in Mali, Mauritania and Niger has increased by 41%, 82% and 91%, respectively
And the population also feels more pronounced the convergence of crises.
- The region is experiencing one of its worst droughts since 2011, while the lack of fertilizers due to the conflict in Ukraine could compromise the recovery of agricultural production in 2022.
- Before the conflict in Ukraine, food prices were already soaring, but its impact on global food, fuel and fertilizer supply chains is driving up food costs even further. In March, cereals became more expensive in Burkina Faso by 50% compared to the average of the last five years.
- The percentage of people living on less than $1.90 a day in the entire West Africa region increased by 3% in 2021 due to the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19.
“We are running out of food”
Abderahmane Ould, a married shepherd with six children between the ages of eight and twenty-two who lives in the Mauritanian region of Hod el Chargui, near the town of Néma, indicated the difficulties he faces. “Because of last year’s drought we are running out of food. To get money to buy food I have to sell my cattle, but since I can’t feed them well either because I don’t have enough fodder, my cattle are weak and I have to sell them for less ”.
Ould added that “with this money, I go to the market to buy food for my family, but prices continue to rise, the cost of oil has more than doubled, and the size of the loaf has decreased while its value has increased. To get ahead I will have to get into debt with the merchants, otherwise I will not be able to feed my family, I have to offer them at least one meal a day”.
A situation that also affected the baker in his town who was forced to close his business “since he could not make ends meet with the increase in prices, so he went to look for work in the big cities. To get bread, now we have to go to the city market which is 10 kilometers away on foot.”
Source: UN
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