funding

The World Food Program (WFP) in Niger, the country worst-hit by the West Africa food crisis, has been forced to make an "agonizing" decision to abandon plans to provide emergency food to families with children over the age of two because of a huge funding shortfall.

Insufficient funding and delays in food delivery threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands in the Sahel belt of West Africa. There is little excuse for the lack of adequate funding and delays – the international community had been warned of the magnitude of the unfolding crisis for months.