More than quarter of Africa’s population facing food security crisis: ICRC

Nairobi, Apr 5 (EFE).- Some 346 million people in Africa – more than a quarter of the continent’s population – are facing “a food security crisis,” an “alarming” situation that could worsen in the coming months, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Tuesday.

“This is a disaster going largely unnoticed. Millions of families are going hungry and children are dying because of malnutrition,” ICRC head of global operations Dominik Stillhart said in a statement issued from Nairobi.

Having been hit by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, many African countries are now also facing conflict, drought and rising prices for basic foodstuffs and fuel.

In addition, the humanitarian responses to these situations are being slowed in many places by insecurity, as well as food and fuel price inflation brought on by the war in Ukraine, the ICRC noted.

“We are scaling up our operations in countries like Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria and Burkina Faso and many others to try and help as many people as we can, but the number of people going without food and water is staggering,” Stillhart added.

The most affected countries are Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan in East Africa; Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic and Chad in the center; and Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania in the west, according to the ICRC.

Oxfam and 10 other international NGOs also warned Tuesday that the West African region is experiencing its worst food crisis in 10 years, with 27 million people suffering from hunger. EFE

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