{"id":10195,"date":"2022-05-19T22:44:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T22:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=10195"},"modified":"2022-09-05T06:46:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T06:46:40","slug":"un-from-sahel-to-horn-of-africa-millions-face-severe-food-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2022\/05\/19\/un-from-sahel-to-horn-of-africa-millions-face-severe-food-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"UN: From Sahel to Horn of Africa, millions face severe food insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

GENEVA — <\/strong>The UN said on Friday that up to 18 million people in Africa\u2019s Sahel region will face severe food insecurity over the next three months, the highest number since 2014, while there was also a warning about drought-induced food scarcity extending to East Africa as well.<\/p>\n

Jens Laerke, Geneva spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), issued the warning at a UN news conference on the Sahel, which cuts across northern parts of Africa from west to east.<\/p>\n

He said that 7.7 million children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer from malnutrition in the Sahel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome 1.8 million are severely malnourished. If aid operations are not scaled up, this number could reach 2.4 million by the year\u2019s end,\u201d said Laerke.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving this is a combination of violence, insecurity, deep poverty, and record-high food prices in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alarming levels<\/strong><\/p>\n

The OCHA spokesman said that the situation had reached alarming levels in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger, where people will experience emergency levels of food insecurity during the lean season between June and August.<\/p>\n

World Food Program\u2019s (WFP) Geneva spokesman Tomson Phiri said at the same news conference: \u201cNeeds are sky-high, but resourcing is at rock bottom, meaning WFP is facing severe funding shortfalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Chad, low funding levels have forced the WFP to reduce emergency rations for IDPs (internally displaced people) and refugees to 50% since June 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf no further contributions are received, assistance will be cut off in early July 2022 for refugees and IDPs in the Lake region.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that in Mauritania, the WFP will continue to distribute reduced assistance to refugees, with the food component of the hybrid food-cash rations being cut by 50% in one camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cConflict, COVID-19, climate, and rising costs collide to put basic meals out of reach for millions of people in the Sahel,\u201d said Phiri.<\/p>\n

Lean season<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is worsening as the annual lean season sets in from June to September,\u201d UN\u2019s Chief Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said a day before.<\/p>\n

Griffiths not only spoke of the Sahel\u2019s plight but also about the northeast on the Horn of Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one needs this help more urgently than the nearly 35 million people going hungry in the Horn of Africa and in the Sahel right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw this at first hand when I had the good fortune, the privilege to visit Kenya last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffiths said that after four failed rainy seasons in the Horn, four in a row, more than 18 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are affected by drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them are hungry, not knowing whether they\u2019ll eat that day or not,\u201d said the UN official.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is likely to get a lot worse for more people in the weeks ahead. In Kenya, I was told that the prospect for the next season, from October to December, is as dire as the last four.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at the longest drought in the Horn in at least four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Anadolu Agency\u00a0 \u00a0 Origin: View original<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA — The UN said on Friday that up to 18 million people in Africa\u2019s Sahel region will face severe food insecurity over the next three months, the highest number since 2014, while there was also a warning about drought-induced food scarcity extending to East Africa as well. Jens Laerke, Geneva spokesman for the United …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,10,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-food-security-cluster","category-news","category-protection-cluster","category-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10852,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195\/revisions\/10852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}