Sahel facing worst food crisis for five years

Christian development agency Tearfund has called on international donors to step in as more than 10 million people face a “severe” food crisis in the Sahel.

It said international donors “must do more” to prevent a food crisis in the region, where Niger and Chad have been hit by widespread malnutrition and loss of livestock.

There are an estimated eight million people at risk in Niger, while in Chad some two million people are in need of immediate food aid. Tearfund fears that inflated food prices will worsen the crisis and cause it to spread to Mali and Burkina Faso.

Tearfund’s Disaster Management Director David Bainbridge said international donors needed to act immediately to ensure that the governments of Niger and Chad and NGOs operating in the countries having the resources necessary to address the “urgent” food and nutrition needs.

“The UK and the European Commission raised the alarm earlier this year, but without the intervention of other donors it is impossible to see how we will prevent a massive humanitarian crisis as well as the damage that goes beyond that to erode people’s livelihoods and ability to cope with future times of drought,” he said.

“Pastoralist communities, for example, are rapidly losing livestock, their main source of income and they are forced to sell their animals at very low prices just to buy food which means that they will be even more vulnerable for the rest of this year and beyond.”

The Sahel region faces considerable developmental challenges, with only poor access to health services and safe drinking water available to most people.

Niger is ranked the world’s poorest country by the UN Human Development Index and has been hit by five severe food crises in the last three decades. Tearfund says the nation’s food woes have been compounded by climate change and political instability, following the coup in February which brought a new government to power.

Tearfund said it was necessary for international donors to make Sahelian countries a priority in order to tackle the underlying reasons behind the food crises and droughts, and to prevent future food crises.

It called for a “concerted effort” to help save lives and enable Sahelian communities to cope with the “major” changes in climate now threatening the region.

“Working with nomadic tribes, such as the Tuareg in Niger, we can help them adapt to these changes, securing their traditional pastoral way of life but also reducing the risk of future disasters,” explained Jeff Woodke of Tearfund partner Jemed.

“People are more resilient to drought with more ways to cope now that they have community contingency plans, alternative livelihoods with women selling small goods, herds that have been built up and committees that manage land use.”