UN: Urgent help needed for 12 million facing hunger in West Africa

Feb 16, 2012, 11:06 GMT

Rome - The United Nations on Wednesday said urgent action was needed to help some 12 million people threatened by hunger in several West and Central African nations including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

'Rising levels of hunger and malnutrition caused by the combined effect of drought, high food prices, (and) displacement,' are affecting the so-called Sahel region of Africa, the heads of several UN agencies said in a statement issued in Rome.

'The current internal and external displacement of populations in Mali as a result of fighting between the insurgents and Malian military forces ... will compound an already severe situation in Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso,' the statement noted among other things.

The statement was co-signed by several other participants at an emergency meeting on the situation in the Sahel, held at the UN World Food Programme's (WFP) headquarters in Rome.

These included representatives of the African Union, the United States Agency for International Development and the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department.

The WFP said it was to receive 30 million euros (39 million dollars) in humanitarian assistance from the European Union to scale up its efforts to combat hunger among the most vulnerable in the Sahel, especially women and children.

'In the Sahel the early warning signals are loud and clear and we're doing everything we can now to reduce the impact of a failed harvest and prevent it from turning into another major food crisis,' said Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

WFP is aiming to provide food assistance to some 8 million people in Niger, Chad, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Cameroon.

'The increasing frequency of droughts in the region has meant that communities have had little time to recover from previous food crises. Family savings are exhausted and livestock herds have not been replenished,' the WFP said.