Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2014 00:11:16 +0200
Refugees and patchy rains trigger new Sahel hunger crisis
UN asks for $100m as conflicts drive refugees into drought-stricken Sahel
countries already experiencing food insecurity
* Mark Anderson <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/mark-anderson>
* <http://www.theguardian.com/> theguardian.com,
* Thursday 31 July 2014 12.34 BST
About $100m (£60m) of funding is needed from international donors to pay for
food-security programmes in the <http://www.theguardian.com/world/sahel>
Sahel, the UN has warned, as more than 20 million people continue to face
shortages.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN's Sahel coordinator
have renewed calls for emergency funds to address food shortages triggered
by patchy rains and an influx of
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/refugees> refugees, many of whom are
fleeing unrest in neighbouring countries.
Conflict in the Central African Republic, Mali and Nigeria is straining
already limited food supplies among host families and in refugee camps in
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency has driven more than 50,000 refugees into
neighbouring Niger, according to Patrick David, deputy head of the FAO's
Sahel office in Senegal. "The areas that receive the most refugees and
displaced are Diffa and areas around Lake Chad. At the current pace, the
most pessimistic forecasts project the presence of 100,000 refugees by the
end of the 2014," he added.
More than 332,000 refugees from Mali need humanitarian assistance in Burkina
Faso, David said.
In February, the UN appealed for $116m to support an extra 7.5 million
people facing food shortages in the Sahel, part of a wider $2.2bn,
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/04/un-2bn-help-comba
t-hunger-sahel-africa> three-year programme that aims to break a cycle of
food insecurity in the region. So far, $16m has been received. Donors met
63% of the UN's Sahel appeal last year, which sought $1.7bn for emergency
relief.
Low rainfall has worsened
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/food-security> food security
in Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, while drought has prevented
farmers in Senegal and Chad from planting crops, the UN said.
The FAO says it needs funds to buy herds, provide vaccinations and improve
water access, which it has done for 1.2 million people. "FAO is supporting
internally displaced, returnees and refugees and their host communities in
Mali, northern Nigeria and Chad to restore or strengthen their livelihoods,"
David said.
"The assistance provided focuses on the distribution of agricultural inputs
to enable them to plant and produce their own food. They also receive
support in animal health, as displaced populations in the region often
travel with their cattle, which is weakened especially as the pastoral lean
season is ongoing and livestock is in a poor physical condition due to the
lack of pasture."
Funds are needed to address the economic problems of poor and rural
households, who "depend on casual labour for revenues [and] on markets to
access food, and rely on damaging coping strategies, such as selling assets,
reducing the number of meals or taking children out of school", the FAO
said.
Robert Piper, who works in the region for the UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the Sahel needs immediate help to
end periodic food insecurity.
"If we are going to break out of this cycle of chronic crises across the
Sahel region, emergency assistance to vulnerable farmers and pastoralists
has to be considered a top priority," Piper said. "The best way to reduce
tomorrow's emergency caseload is to help households protect their assets
today," he added.
David said the FAO's three-year programme "was very much appreciated by the
donor community and considered the right approach: a three-year timeframe
with clear focus on building the resilience of vulnerable populations. In
the coming months there is an urgent need to support livestock, flood plain
recession and dry season agriculture."
Bukar Tijani, assistant director general at the FAO
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/africa> Africa office, said: "More should
be done to protect the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities in a
region that is so frequently affected by various shocks."
The Sahel
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/saheldrought/2012/06/20126161747
21352901.html> experiences periodic droughts, which are
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/dec/20/climate-change-killing-t
rees-sahel> linked to climate change. While fears of starvation are ever
present, the last famine in the region was 30 years ago.
"UN agencies do not wait for famine anymore," David said. "They work
together to reduce the chronic vulnerability and enhance the resilience of
the Sahelian populations to reduce the possibilities of a famine to arrive."
MDG Refugee girl in Niger
Aldaoula Banounassane, 20, drinks dirty water at a refugee camp in Yassan,
Niger. She fled there from Mali. Photograph: Fatoumata Diabate/Oxfam
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)