Photo credit: DiasporaEngager (www.DiasporaEngager.com).

from ISSOUF TRAORE in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso Bureau
OUAGADOUGOU, (CAJ News) – THE number of hungry people is projected to rise significantly in the next six months as the critical food crisis in the Central Sahel continues.

This number is forecast to exceed more than 7,5 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

That is a significant rise from 5,3 million people between October to December 2022.

However, this is not as severe as the critical lean season last summer where 9,7 million people were in crisis.

Save the Children and other agencies in the region have documented the impending crisis.

The organizations said the situation for children, who make up more than half of the populations in the three countries, will become even more desperate.

Children account for up to 50 percent of the population in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Abdou Malam Dodo, Regional Food, Security and Livelihood Advisor for Save the Children in West and Central Africa, said without urgent action in the coming months, they expected to see a growing number of families resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive, such as selling off the small number of assets they own to afford food and reducing or skipping meals.

“The time to act is now. Children’s lives depend on it,” Dodo said.

Save the Children has called on world leaders, donors, members of the United Nations, and non-governmental organisations to prioritise funding in the region for the necessary services to support and protect children and their families impacted by the hunger crisis and ensure their resilience.

Conflict, poverty and climate change in the form of droughts, floods and extreme weather are exacerbating the crisis in the Sahel.

– CAJ News

Source of original article: Africa & World – CAJ News Africa (www.cajnewsafrica.com).
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