From the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, hunger is growing relentlessly

One person dies of hunger every 36 seconds between Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, while 18.6 million people are in serious food insecurity in the Sahel: hunger is progressing tirelessly in Africa, denounced Thursday, April 27 the UN and NGO.

Caused by drought (linked to global warming) or by conflicts, which it also helps to maintain, this situation, pointed out by Unicef, but also the NGOs Care and Oxfam during a joint press conference Thursday in Paris, is accompanied by ever more dizzying figures.

In Burkina Faso, deeply destabilized by a deadly jihadist insurgency, three times as many children were killed between January and September 2022 as during the same period in 2021, and the number of minors treated for severe acute malnutrition increased by 50% d year after year, according to Unicef.

In Niger, the recurrent drought and disastrous floods in 2022, in addition to the ongoing conflicts, have made harvests increasingly difficult, causing a "fall in cereal production of nearly 40%", deplores

-Nicolas Jandeaux, from Oxfam France.

Deficient rainy seasons

Some 430,000 children in Niger suffer from severe acute malnutrition, while 154,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are expected to suffer from it this year, compared to around 64,000 in 2022, an increase of 141%, according to Lucile Grosjean, a spokeswoman for UNICEF.

In the Horn of Africa, five consecutive poor rainy seasons have killed millions of cattle and destroyed crops.

According to the UN, 22 million people are threatened by hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where there is also an Islamist insurgency.

"

an

", in certain regions of the country, deplores Mathilde Casper, of the NGO Care.

This situation, which is an "

", is the "

", thunders Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, while in 2022 "

" were fulfilled in these regions.

“Enormous” financial needs

The financial needs are "

" and the major Western donors must "

" and "

", said David Beasley, director of the World Food Program, in November, interviewed by the daily

.

“

,” he said.

In a separate press release on Thursday, the NGO Doctors Without Borders reported a "

" number of admissions of malnourished children recorded by its teams in Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria.

"

", worries Htet Aung Kyi, MSF medical coordinator, "

”.

"

", he is alarmed, fearing a "

" when the lean season arrives, i.e. the moment before the first harvests of 2023, when those of 2022 will be exhausted.