DAKAR, Senegal – For the third time in the past decade, drought has returned to the arid, western shoulder of Africa, bringing hunger to millions. Aid agencies are warning that if action is not taken now, the region known as the Sahel could slip into crisis.
More than 1 million children in the eight affected countries are expected to face life-threatening malnutrition this year, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. The region has not yet recovered from the last drought two years ago, and many families lost their herds which means that they will not have assets to purchase food.
Aid workers also worry that donors are suffering from “famine fatigue,” as the looming West African crisis comes just six months after Somalia’s capital was declared a famine zone.
“I think there is a real risk that people may think this is the kind of thing that just happens every few years,” Stephen Cockburn, the West Africa regional campaign manager for Oxfam, said of the droughts in the Sahel.
Earlier this week, aid agencies revealed that thousands of people died needlessly in the Horn of Africa because donors waited until people started dying to respond. The warning signs were there as early as
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