Climate crisis fuels drought, severe hunger across Horn of Africa - NaijaAgroNet

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The climate crisis is fueling one of the worst droughts on record across the Horn of Africa, with up to 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia facing severe hunger, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to ActionAid’s emergency teams, with millions of people still recovering from the devastating drought that hit the region in 2017, a large-scale response is urgently needed to avert a catastrophic food and malnutrition crisis.

1.6m children to experience severe acute malnutrition @Sahel - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

An estimated 1.6 million children are expected to experience severe acute malnutrition in the Sahel region of Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that the Sahel is on lean season which ran from June to August, 2018 nears its close, latest estimates showed that nearly 6 million people will have been severely food insecure in this period.

“Of these, almost half – or 2.7 million people – are pastoralists or agropastoralists. Up to 1.6 million children are expected to experience severe acute malnutrition,” official FAO press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet read.

Today, the three UN agency heads, whose organizations are working in partnership within the UN system-wide support to the Sahel, will underscore joint efforts aimed at addressing poverty, underdevelopment, the impacts of extreme weather events and migration - factors that have all contributed to the region’s critical humanitarian and security situation.

These heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development(IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are on official working visit to Niger on a three-day working visit between 15-18 August 2018, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This visit, NaijaAgroNet gathered will see these chiefs highlighting regional efforts to address the critical food and nutrition security situation in the Sahel.

The trio including FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo, and WFP Executive Director David Beasley, will meet Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou as well as Prime Minister Brigi Rafini and other members of the country’s government.

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7m people may suffer severe hunger in Lake Chad Basin region

NaijaAgroNet:

Estimated 7 million people may suffer severe hunger in the Lake Chad Basin region, including northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking during a visit to Lake Chad Basin, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr. José Graziano da Silva, this region requires immediate food and livelihood assistance.

"The situation we have now is largely due to the conflicts and armed groups that have devastated the lives and livelihoods across the whole of Lake Chad region. It is like an opportunistic infection, which is largely taking advantage of an already weak body from underlying problems of environmental degradation, related droughts, low investment in rural development and limited employment and livelihood opportunities for young men and women. We need to work on the symptoms by restoring peace and treat the disease by making the body stronger. This is all about resilience," Graziano da Silva said.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet reports that over 1 million returnees and the majority of internally displaced people in areas which have recently become relatively strife-free, have access to land and may benefit from the forthcoming rainy season starting in May 2017 should sufficient agriculture support be provided.

"Protracted conflict has eroded coping capacities, exhausted livelihoods and left people with no way to feed themselves and their families.  Agriculture cannot be an afterthought. More than 80 percent of people rely on farming, fishing and herding for their livelihoods," the FAO Director-General said.

NaijaAgroNet reports that Graziano da Silva during his visit, met local farmers on several FAO supported farms in Gongolong and Old Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria's Borno State.

He was accompanied by the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh.

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