UN: 18 million facing severe hunger in West Africa's Sahel

20/5/2022 19:40

        The U.N. is warning that 18 million people in Africa's Sahel region face severe hunger in the next three months, citing the impacts of Russia's war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, climate-induced shocks and rising costs.
        
        The hunger crisis may press increased numbers of people to migrate out of the affected areas, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday.
        
        The largest number of people are at risk of severe hunger across the region since 2014, and four countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger — are facing "alarming levels," with nearly 1.7 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity there, according to the U.N. agency.
        
        Parts of the Sahel region, a vast territory stretching across the south of the Sahara Desert, have faced their worst agricultural production in more than a decade, and food shortages could worsen as the lean season arrives in late summer, Tomson Phiri, spokesman for the U.N.'s Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Program, said.