Key Points

• Sahel Alert: Given the risks of localized food crises in the Sahel, humanitarian ac-tors have developed a Regional Preparedness Strategy.

• Coarse grain markets in the Sahel and coastal countries, hindering food access on the poorest groups.

Responses are necessary to prevent a food crisis in the Sahel

I. Introduction

1. In its letter dated 20 December 2010 (S/2010/661), the Security Council agreed to extend the mandate of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) until 31 December 2013, and requested me to report on the implementation of the revised mandate of UNOWA every six months. The present report covers the period from 1 July to 31 December 2011.

Niamey / Genève (CICR) – Avec l'appui du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR), une vaste campagne de vaccination et de déparasitage d’une population animale d'environ 4 500 000 têtes de bétail vient d'être lancée au nord du Mali et du Niger ainsi que dans la zone transfrontalière entre ces deux pays.

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Millet-sorghum harvests currently in process will end early (in December, rather than January, as is typical in West Africa) due not only to rainfall deficits, but also to grasshopper and grain-eating bird attacks on gadiaba sorghum. These late-season attacks further worsened cereal production below the low level predicted in November. In the central Niger Delta, where irrigation of areas of submerged rice was already poor (20-30 percent of area planted), we also expect an early recession of water during while crop development is delayed, due to the late and weak flooding.

Par Priyanka Pruthi

NEW YORK, États-Unis, 27 décembre 2011 - Alors même que le combat contre la faim continue dans la Corne de l'Afrique durement frappée par la sécheresse, une autre crise s'installe dans huit pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest.

VIDÉO (en anglais) : le reportage de la correspondante de l'UNICEF, Priyanka Pruthi sur la crise grandissante dans la région du Sahel en Afrique, où plus d'un million d'enfants sont menacés par une malnutrition sévère.

By Priyanka Pruthi

NEW YORK, USA, 27 December 2011 – Even as the battle against hunger continues in the drought-hit Horn of Africa, another crisis has begun to unfold in eight countries across West Africa.

VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent Priyanka Pruthi reports on the growing crisis in Africa's Sahel region, where more than a million children are at risk of becoming severely malnourished.

DAKAR, 23 December 2011 (IRIN) - While severely high food prices and lower-than-average cereal outputs are already forcing some vulnerable Sahelians into distress responses, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) food security website FEWSNET says messaging on the situation needs to be more nuanced.

It says the links between cereal production and malnutrition have been exaggerated, the complexities of regional market conditions inadequately conveyed, and the need for long-term structural solutions under-emphasized.

The Sahel region of West Africa is facing a looming hunger crisis in 2012 with the UN and governments estimating that more than 12 million people in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad are at risk of food insecurity.

There is a chronic food and nutrition emergency in the region and an on-going livelihoods crisis, which is only worsened by this year’s poor and erratic rains, locust infestations and high food prices.