‘Hunger is stalking children in the Sahel’

UNICEF NZ (UN Children’s Fund)
Media Release
Tuesday 3 April 2012

Sound the Alarm
‘Hunger is stalking children in the Sahel’

Dakar / Geneva, 3 April 2012 - UNICEF is warning that there is little time left to stave off a disaster facing more than a million children aged below five in the Sahel region of West Africa. The communities in the Sahel have been hit by a perfect storm of poor harvests, drought and high food prices. They have a great capacity for resilience, but there is a limit and it has been reached. The dry, ‘lean’ season in the eight affected countries just south of the Sahara Desert is imminent. For UNICEF, this will be marked by rising numbers of children in feeding centres who will need lifesaving treatment.

‘A multiple disaster is stalking children in the Sahel,’ said the agency’s Regional Director, David Gressly. ‘Even in a best case scenario we are expecting more than a million children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition to enter feeding centres over the next six months. More extreme conditions could see the number rise to around 1.5 million, and funding is still not coming at the rate we need to prepare properly.’ So far the agency has received NZ$29 million dollars against an emergency appeal of NZ$145 million dollars for 2012.

Successive droughts in 2005, 2010 and now 2012 combined with food shortages and increasing insecurity in the region are pushing families into crisis. Families coped with the 2010 drought by selling their livestock to feed themselves. Only two years on families have not had time to build up their live stocks again causing more strain on resources than previous years.

Work was done during previous droughts to build resilience of the communities affected and today children benefit from the money that saved lives in 2010 and 2005, yet more remains to be done. Children are already feeling the effects of the drought and many are at risk of stunting and irreversible, permanent brain damage as a result of severe malnutrition.

Dennis McKinlay, Executive Director of UNICEF NZ, said ‘The world was slow to act in response to the Horn of Africa crisis and thousands died as a result. While the situation in the Sahel has not become a famine yet, we need to act early to avoid a full scale food and nutrition crisis.’

Governments, UNICEF, other UN agencies and international aid organisations are responding to a crisis caused by poor rainfall and failed harvests affecting an estimated 15 million people in areas of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Cameroon and parts of the north in Senegal.

‘Without a good emergency response and a sustained effort to reduce risk in the medium to long term an entire generation faces a future of dependency, poverty and threatened survival.’ said Gressly.

Donate to UNICEF’s Sahel appeal to help save children’s lives in The Sahel and West Africa. Donate at www.unicef.org.nz/sound-the-alarm or call our Donation Line 0800 800 194

-ENDS-

About UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.

The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.

UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Every $1 donated to us is worth at least $10 in the field thanks to the way we work in partnership with governments, local NGOs and other partners.

www.unicef.org.nz

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