In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, countries ruled by juntas and undermined by the violence of jihadist groups, 7.5 million people are experiencing “severe food insecurity”, the American NGO for the defense of human rights International Rescue Committee (IRC).
“The scale of severe food insecurity and related malnutrition continues to intensify in the region. In the central Sahel alone [Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger], 7.5 million people are affected, an increase from [the] 5.4 million [people in this situation] last year,” writes the IRC in a press release.
Around 70 million people live in these three countries. The phenomenon could worsen there, as well as in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, between harvests, from June to August.
“In West and Central Africa, food insecurity has gradually worsened over the past five years,” analyzes the IRC regional vice-president for West Africa, Modou Diaw, quoted in the press release.
“Climatic shocks have exacerbated” this phenomenon, as well as “malnutrition and insecurity”, and “push young people, men and women, to migrate within and outside the region”, he continues. .
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are on the list of forty-six least developed countries established by the UN. They are each led by soldiers who came to power through a coup and are subject to deadly violence from jihadist groups.
After obtaining the departure of the French army from their soil, the three countries grouped together within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). They found new partners, including Russia. On Saturday, Russian instructors delivered basic necessities to Niger.
