UN is concerned about worsening of food insecurity in Sahel

Climate change, insecurity, inflation, food shortages: the countries of the region face “multidimensional challenges”, analyzes the United Nations.

MO12345lemonde with AFP

The UN was worried, Tuesday, January 10, with the massive degradation of food security in the Sahel exacerbated in particular by the war in Ukraine with, in six months, more than 5 million additional people in a situation of insecurity “serious” food in the region.

“The food crisis striking the Sahel has been aggravated by the shortages of wheat and fertilizers trained by the conflict in Ukraine, regional insecurity and the ever -heavier consequences of climate change”, according to a report Secretary General of the United Nations presented Tuesday before the Security Council.

Result, “more than 18.6 million people are in serious food insecurity, 5.6 million more” than in the previous report of June 2022. “And for 2.1 million people This situation has reached an extremely critical level “, specifies this half -yearly report on the situation in West Africa and in the Sahel, which notes that the most affected countries are Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria.

“crucial assistance”

In general, the humanitarian situation, “in particular in the center of the Sahel, has remained catastrophic, which has also been aggravated by an increase in food and energy prices as well as by disasters climatic, due to heavy rain, floods and water pollution “, underlines the text, worried about” limited humanitarian access “by the security situation, which deprives vulnerable people of a” crucial assistance “.

In parallel with the humanitarian situation, the conditions of security in the region also “continued to deteriorate”, in particular in Burkina Faso and Mali.