Sahel

Last week, British actor Bonnie Wright, best known for her role in the Harry Potter films, travelled to Senegal with Oxfam to draw attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in the country and to the wider food crisis across the Sahel region of West Africa.

Senegalese singer Baaba Maal today launched a personal appeal to raise $5,000 for communities facing a food crisis in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa.

Last week, Malian singer and guitarist Afel Bocoum was joined in Mali by British musician Damon Albarn for a unique music project aimed at drawing international attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in Mali and to the regional food crisis in West and Central Africa.

Following today's donor meeting in Brussels to discuss the food crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, Oxfam deputy humanitarian director Graham MacKay said:

The people of Africa’s Sahel region are facing an increasing risk of widespread food crisis, following a series of crises over recent years which has slashed incomes, undermined livelihoods

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’.

Humanitarian actors are concerned by the early depletion of food reserves of many Nigerien families and warn of the risk of aggravation of the food and nutrition crisis if the aid response is not rapidly reinforced.

Some 13 million people are at severe risk from a food crisis which is set to escalate into a full scale humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa if urgent action is not taken.

Oxfam today welcomed a joint statement made by UN agencies, the European Union and USAID issuing a concerted call for action to meet the humanitarian needs of over 11 million people in the

Estimates of people in need of assistance in the Sahel increases to over 11 million people, as agency warns humanitarian efforts need to be stepped up in the coming weeks.