African Sahel region is on the brink of acute food insecurity and Hunger

Eighteen million population of Africa's Sahel region are considered to be on "the brink of acute hunger."

In light of the fact that approximately 18 million people in Africa's Sahel region are on the verge of suffering from extreme level of food insecurity over the course of another three months. In view of this, the United Nations has made available an additional thirty million dollars from its humanitarian assistance fund in order to enhance the emergency assistance across four nations.

The UN Office for the Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs has issued a warning that the world is on the verge of experiencing its greatest ever food insecurity issue since 2014. (OCHA).

Martin Griffiths, the head of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that "the entire households in the Sahel areas are facing extreme levels of food shortage and people are going to die if  measures are not in place right now.

Worrying figures

It is anticipated that more than 7.7 million under-five years children would be suffering horribly because of malnutrition and hunger in the Sahel, with nearly two million of these children being seriously malnourished.

This number may reach 2.4 million by the end of the year if there is no increase in the capacity of the humanitarian operations.

According to the head of humanitarian operations, "a mix of violence, instability, abject poverty, and record-breaking cost of food is aggravating hunger and pushing millions of people to the margins of survival."

Shockingly Staggering hunger

Nearly 1.7 million people in Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will face food scarcity that are considered to be a crisis during the dry period, which runs from June to August. The problem has reached a critical level in these four countries.

At the emergency stage, which is technically known as IPC phase 4, homes encounter "large gaps" in their food intake; acute levels of undernourishment and the deaths that are associated with it; and households sell off necessary items for their livelihoods, such as farming equipment.

According to the person in charge of coordinating emergency relief efforts, "the recent surge in food prices prompted by the war between Russia and Ukraine is going to create a global food crisis  and convert it into a  calamity for humanity."

We can not afford to be complacent.

Burkina Faso received $6 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), while Chad, Mali, and Niger each received $8 million. These funds were released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in order to help meet the most urgent needs in terms of food security and nutrition in the four countries.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is a structure that allows donors to pool their donations in advance. This enables humanitarian organisations to give immediate aid that may save lives in the event of a crisis while waiting for more money.

Mr. Griffiths was quoted as saying, "We do not have time to waste." "There is a risk to human life. This infusion of funds will assist local organisations in their efforts to ramp up their emergency response in the hopes of averting a disaster.

injections of fresh cash

The total amount of cash that has been sent via CERF to the Sahel since the start of the year is now close to $95 million thanks to this most recent commitment.

A further recent commitment of $4 million was made for Mauritania, while another allocation of $15 million was announced for Nigeria.

The head of humanitarian aid emphasised that the Comprehensive Emergency Response Fund (CERF) is not a replacement for "the more significant donor contributions we need to continue our response and assist create resilient communities."

This year, at the beginning of the year, the humanitarian groups in the Sahel announced six humanitarian appeal for a total of $3.8 billion to deliver help across the area for year 2022.

Despite this, the appeals have only received less than 12% of their funding halfway through the year.