More than 50 million people in west and central Africa will go hungry unless immediate is taken to address food insecurity – which is at an all-time high in the region, UN agencies and NGOs have warned.
One in 10 people will have difficulty accessing safe and nutritious food in west and central Africa, projections made by organisations including Unicef and Oxfam have found.
A survey published this week looks at escalating food and nutrition insecurity in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria.
It was carried out in coordination with governments and the regional economic bloc, Ecowas.
The report predicts 52 million people in the area will have difficulty feeding themselves during the upcoming lean season: the interval between harvests from June to August.
The central & northern regions of #Mali are grappling with two simultaneous crises:
— OCHA West and Central Africa (@OCHAROWCA) May 3, 2024
⚠️A sharp deterioration of food insecurity levels
⚠️The arrival of 70,000 refugees fleeing from neighbouring countries@UNReliefChief allocated $11M from @UNCERF to address this dual crisis.
Worsening crisis
Since 2019, the number of people experiencing food insecurity has quadrupled in west and central Africa, the World Food Programme said.
This represents four million more people compared to the same period last year.
Children under five-years-old are the first victims. An unprecedented 17 million of them currently suffer from acute malnutrition globally.
In Nigeria, food insecurity could affect 16 percent of the population – about 30 million people.
In Chad and Sierra Leone, up to 20 percent of the population could be impacted.
Meanwhile in Mali's Menaka region in the north, several thousand people risk suffering from catastrophic hunger, according to the survey, which corresponds to the most serious level of food insecurity.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan are also at risk, says the FAO.
Food insecurity will worsen in all studied countries in the coming months except in Guinea, Benin, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
Conflicts and climate disasters
Conflicts are the main cause of this increase in food insecurity, according to the NGO International Rescue Committee.
Food insecurity has reached an all-time high in West and Central Africa, with under 5s among the worst affected.
— International Rescue Committee - UK (@RESCUE_UK) May 8, 2024
Malnutrition rates are expected to reach critical levels of over 15% (over 1 in 6 children) in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria.https://t.co/S3S162HHO7
Sadou Soumana, a technical advisor on food security and livelihoods at the International Rescue Committee, told RFI that conflicts destroy means of subsistence by displacing millions, including agro-pastoralists.
"The fields are no longer exploited, which directly affects the level of agricultural production," Soumana said.
"Herds of cattle get decimated, which directly affects the main livelihoods of breeders. This is why conflicts play a determining role in food insecurity."
Climate shocks
The climate crisis is also a serious factor.
Soumana said that 80 percent of Sahel households depend on food from agriculture that relies on rainfall.
He added: "Climate change constitutes one of the accelerators of the degradation of ecosystems, including agricultural operations.
"Climate change and drought are also accelerating soil poverty, which affects the level of yields in the area."
However, the humanitarian response plan so far is chronically underfunded.
Currently, only 10 percent of the plan is financed for Central Africa.
NGOs say there is a need for more collective action to address the issue of food and nutritional insecurity with sustained funding.
