Author Topic: Food and nutrition crisis in Niger and the Western Sahel (Read 1458 times)

Perfect · « **on:** »

The West African Sahel is facing one of the worst food and nutrition crises in recent years.

Some 10 million people in Niger, Chad, Mali and Mauritania are at risk of hunger before the next harvest in late September; hundreds of thousands of children are severely malnourished; and people’s most precious asset, their livestock, have died in large numbers.

In late 2009 the US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network highlighted signs of the crisis: a major drop in cereal production and poor pastoral conditions due to failed rains, and a dangerous combination of poverty and high food prices.

UN agencies, NGOs and governments have been trying to ease the crisis, but say funding has been insufficient and late, given that bringing food to landlocked countries with hardly any infrastructure can take up to five months.

The situation in Chad’s Sahelian belt running across the centre of the country is especially worrying: While malnutrition figures are alarmingly high - up to 27 percent of under-five children in some areas - the number of organizations on the ground is limited. People have compared the situation there to the crisis in Niger in 2005.

People struggle every year in the Sahel countries, among the poorest in the world. A third of the population of Chad and Niger are chronically undernourished - regardless of the size of the harvest. Each year, 300,000 under-five children die of malnutrition, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Cokoye · « **on:** »

Subject / Started by	Replies	Last post
WEST AFRICA: Act now to stem Sahel food crisis, donor says Started by Perfect AGRICULTURE	0 Replies 1487 Views	by Perfect
NIGERIA: Fallout from Niger food crisis Started by Perfect AGRICULTURE	1 Replies 948 Views	by Perfect
HOW TO: Prevent the Sahel's next food crisis Started by Perfect AGRICULTURE	0 Replies 1349 Views	by Perfect
WEST AFRICA: The Sahel's nutrition revolution Started by Perfect HEALTH	0 Replies 1345 Views	by Perfect
NIGER: Crisis, what crisis? Started by Perfect AGRICULTURE	0 Replies 1620 Views	by Perfect

Cokoye

Join over 140k discussions or create one FREE

Cokoye is an Africans forum with over 500k members where people freely discuss issues. Register now to Join or start discussions FREE.

Author Topic: Food and nutrition crisis in Niger and the Western Sahel (Read 1458 times)

Perfect

Food and nutrition crisis in Niger and the Western Sahel

Cokoye

Food and nutrition crisis in Niger and the Western Sahel

Quick Reply

Related Topics