Sahel food crisis

Incoming World Bank president Jim Yong Kim must step up efforts to assist developing countries threatened by the euro zone crisis fallout, international agency Oxfam said ahead of his first day on the job.

Reacting to the draft G20 communiqué circulating on Monday 17th, Oxfam spokesperson Carlos Zarco said:

Donors attending Monday’s pledging conference in Brussels must address a massive funding shortfall – over $900 million - on work needed to tackle the food crisis in the Sahel.

Emirati director and Oxfam supporter Ali F. Mostafa has swapped the high-wire drama of his highly successful City of Life and Classified films for a new short video looking at one of the most pressing humanitarian challenges in the world today.

The first warnings of drought and poor harvests in Africa’s Sahel region emerged in late 2011, and vulnerable communities in many areas have been threatened by a looming food crisis.

International agency Oxfam today warned that sanctions imposed on Mali could have devastating consequences on 3.5m people already at risk of hunger, if humanitarian needs are not safeguarded.

Growing insecurity in Mali and northern Nigeria is disrupting the supply of food to communities suffering from a major food crisis affecting 13 million people in West Africa, said international aid agency Oxfam today.

The current food crisis in Niger is likely to escalate into a full-scale humanitarian emergency if urgent action is not taken, international agency Oxfam warned today. Already, 1.9 million people are at severe risk, and by April, this number could rise to 3.5 million people if help doesn’t come now, according to the National Early Warning System.

According to a recent field study conducted in communities in western and eastern Niger, between 70 and 90 per cent of people estimate their food stocks will run out before the next harvest, creating an imminent ‘hunger gap’.