The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said today that millions of hungry people in West Africa are without aid as the agency struggles with limited funding to respond to the region's worst famine in decades.
Almost half of the 11,6 million people who need food aid between June and August do not receive any aid, the agency said in a statement. It has warned that hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of joining armed groups, marrying early or engaging in "survival sex" in their desperation to survive.
WFP Interim Regional Director for West Africa Margot Vandervelden said "we are in a tragic situation, millions of families will lack sufficient food reserves to feed themselves until the next harvest in September".
"We must take urgent measures to prevent a massive outbreak of catastrophic famine," she said.
Long before last year's floods and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, West Africa was already facing the worst food crisis in 10 years with more than 27 million hungry people who have come to that situation mainly due to the conflict, but also due to drought and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. XNUMX.
Food shortages in West and Central Africa are now affecting 47,2 million people this season, with women and children the most vulnerable group.
"Malnutrition rates have also increased, so almost 16,5 million children under the age of five will be acutely malnourished this year, which is an increase of 83 percent compared to the 2015-2022 average," the agency states.
In the central Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where jihadists are becoming increasingly aggressive, UN agencies estimate that the number of people fleeing the violence has nearly quadrupled from 30.000 in January to 110.000 in June.
"We need a two-pronged approach to end hunger in the Sahel, we need to address acute hunger through humanitarian aid while addressing the structural causes of food insecurity by increasing investment in resilient food systems and expanding government social protection programs," added Vandervelde.
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