The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Burkina Faso crisis and COVID-19 concerns highlight pressure on Sahel food security
Food insecurity levels in the Sahel region are “spiralling out of control”, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday, as it expressed concerns about the potential impact on humanitarian supply chains because of restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the Central Sahel in Africa – encompassing Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – more than five million people face severe food insecurity ahead of the coming lean season, according to data released by WFP and other humanitarian partners.
Humanitarians have repeatedly warned that chronic insecurity linked to successive drought and violent extremists who exploit the lack of a strong State presence have created an avoidable crisis, which WFP said has now extended to the coastal countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Forecasts indicate that Burkina Faso will see food insecurity more than triple, to more than 2.1 million people in June, up from at least 680,000 at the same time last year.
The number of people going hungry is also expected to rise in Mali, with 1.3 million people vulnerable, along with two million people in Niger.
“For the lean season, in the upcoming months June to September, the analysis concluded that we are going from 10.8 million people declared food insecure last year, 2019, to 19.1 million people in 2020,” said Eric Branckaert, WFP Senior Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Adviser, speaking to journalists via videoconference.
“This is an increase of 77 per cent since last year and it is unprecedented.”
Citing Burkina Faso’s experience as illustrative of the plight facing its Sahel neighbours, Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser, said in English and French that it was “one of the most or the fastest growing displaced population crisis in the world. It’s a country that virtually had no IDPs, internally displaced populations, 18 months ago and now the latest official figures are in excess of 800,000 people displaced.”
Speaking via videoconference, Mr Lecuziat said that although WFP has access across the Sahel to populations in need, the agency is extremely concerned about the impact of the new coronavirus on a region with one of the weakest healthcare systems in the world.
If it emerges in a similar way to much of the rest of the world, it will lead to “a serious deterioration” in people’s resilience, as markets and borders close, preventing herders from moving their animals to fresh pasture, he explained.
Social distancing measures have already been implemented by WFP and its partners during aid deliveries, in a bid to keep staff and communities safe.
“We need to limit the number of people that gather so we need to fragment the number of sites of distribution,” Mr Lecuziat said. “The maximum numbers vary from one country to the other, but in general not more than 50 people can be gathered; and even when those people can be gathered, we are implementing standard operating procedures to minimize the transmission of the disease. So there is a temperature check for all people coming into the distribution sites and we have to respect one metre between every individual coming in to get the food assistance.”
At a wider logistical level the UN agency is also exploring all options to ensure that vital aid supply lines can withstand the expected disruption of COVID-19.
“Some of the bigger companies, and indeed the main suppliers globally, are in countries that are currently under strict confinement and a very reduced level of production,” Mr Lecuziat explained. “A lot of the nutritious products are produced in India or France, for example, where factories have had to reduce or close, or reduce significantly their production. We have big concerns on this, and our supply chain colleagues together with UNICEF, are looking at locally available enriched foods to complement this.”
In a statement, WFP said that it had assisted 1.5 million people in Burkina Faso and Mali in February.
It has appealed for more support to tackle the crisis and urgently requires $208 million for the next five months to carry out its lifesaving operations.
“This is a crisis layered on top of a crisis, and the situation risks getting out of hand,” said Chris Nikoi, WFP’s Regional Director for West Africa. “People are on the brink – we must step up now to save lives – we are the only hope for millions.”
- Wide shot, panning right: Mali Mopti IDP camp and repurposed school.
- Medium shot: makeshift shelters in the camps.
- SOUNDBITE (EN): Eric Branckaert, WFP Senior Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Adviser, speaking via videoconference: “For the lean season, in the upcoming months June to September, the analysis concluded that we are going from 10.8 million people declared food insecure last year, 2019, to 19.1 million people in 2020. This is an increase of 77 per cent since last year and it is unprecedented.”
- Medium shot: women cooking food in the camps.
- SOUNDBITE (EN): Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser: “Burkina Faso is now, if not the first, at least one of the most or the fastest growing displaced population crisis in the world. It’s a country that virtually had no IDPs, internally displaced populations, 18 months ago and now the latest official figures are in excess of 800,000 people displaced.”
- Wide shot: outside the UN office in Mopti.
- SOUNDBITE (FR) : Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser: « Depuis 18 mois, et les premières indicateurs que nous avons eu qu’il y était une augmentation de la violence par les groupes armées tout au nord de Burkina Faso dans les zones frontalières avec le Mali, c’est finalement étendue, et donc les nombre de personnes déplacées par les violences ont augmenté au début, graduellement ; là, je parle de fin 2018, début 2019 pour ensuite augmenter très, très rapidement dans le cours de l’année 2019, jusqu’à présent, ça continue à s’accélérer, donc on est passé à nouveau de presque zéro personnes déplacées sur le territoire, à plus de 800,000 personnes maintenant. »
- Medium shot: distribution of goods
- SOUNDBITE (EN): Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser: “We need to limit the number of people that gather so we need to fragment the number of sites of distribution. The maximum numbers vary from one country to the other, but in general not more than 50 people can be gathered and even when those people can be gathered, we are implementing standard operating procedures to minimize the transmission of the disease, so there is a temperature check for all people coming into the distribution sites and we have to respect one metre between every individual coming in to get the food assistance.”
- Close-up: distribution of goods.
- SOUNDBITE (EN): “Some of the bigger companies, and indeed the main suppliers globally, are in countries that are currently under strict confinement and a very reduced level of production. A lot of the nutritious products are produced in India or France, for example, where factories have had to reduce or close, or reduce significantly their production. We have big concerns on this, and our supply chain colleagues together with UNICEF, are looking at locally available enriched foods to complement this.”
- Medium shot: distribution site.
- Close-up: grain distribution.
- Medium shot: nurse measuring child for malnutrition.
- Close-up: child having malnutrition tape measure check, pans up to nurse’s face.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The appointment on Thursday of Karla Quintana as head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic is a key development after nearly a year and a half of work by the UN Human Rights Office supporting the institution’s launch.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNICEF , UNRWA , WHO
The head of the UN migration agency stressed on Friday that Syria is in no position to take back millions of Syrians following the fall of the Assad regime, while there is an urgent need to “re-evaluate” sanctions impacting the war-ravaged country.
1
1
1
Edited News | IIIM , UNHCR
Syria: ‘Key priority’ is to preserve evidence of crimes – UN investigators
In Syria, new access to evidence of horrific human rights violations means that accountability may be closer than ever – if only proof can be preserved, a top UN investigator said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OSE , ICRC , UNHCR
Syria: UN and partners urge action to preserve evidence of prison atrocities, stabilize country
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria five days ago, hundreds of people have rushed to Saydnaya prison, desperate to find loved ones. Disturbing images from the prison and other detention centers have since surfaced, exposing the “unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured for years,” said Jenifer Fenton, spokesperson for the UN special envoy for Syria, on Friday.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: “Sickening normalisation” of suffering, amid attacks on people and aid convoys
Ongoing military operations by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza continue to devastate Palestinian children and families, with mounting casualties and a critical lack of humanitarian aid for the desperate population.
“Local media reporting here that last night, 30 people were killed in this area in strikes” said a senior emergency officer with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, speaking to reporters in Geneva from central Gaza.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Rights experts call for end to impunity for Israel’s violations of international law
Four independent human rights experts have jointly called for the international community to sanction Israel’s conduct of hostilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as in the wider Middle East region - including in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. They also called for the restoration of trust in the international justice system through the abandonment of “extreme interpretations” and “double standards” in the application of the universal norms regulating the conduct of war.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR
Syria: needs continue to grow amid highly uncertain situation, say aid teams
The historic power shift in Syria and the still volatile situation two days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime have increased humanitarian needs in a country where nearly 17 million people, including millions of internally displaced, already depended on humanitarian aid before the recent events, UN aid teams said on Tuesday.
2
1
3
Edited News , Press Conferences | OSES
Barely 48 hours since opposition forces including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept into Damascus and forced out President Bashar al-Assad, the top UN negotiator tasked with helping Syrians’ create a peaceful and democratic future insisted that nothing could be taken for granted.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday called on States to do all in their power to end senseless conflicts and suffering.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
No evacuation order given before Kamal Adwan Hospital strike, says WHO
One of the last partially functional health centres in northern Gaza was reportedly hit again overnight into Friday by several strikes, leaving four health workers among the casualties and the dead, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | OCHA
More than 280,000 people have been uprooted in northwest Syria in a matter of days following the sudden and massive offensive into Government-controlled areas led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is sanctioned by the Security Council as a terrorist group.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has called on the Georgian authorities to respect and protect the rights to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly following several nights of protests that were marred by violence, and dispersed using disproportionate, and in some cases unnecessary, force by the police in the capital, Tbilisi.