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Food prices soar in West Africa amid conflicts and COVID, WFP says

Published 16/04/2021, 13:52
© Reuters.

Dakar, April 16 (Reuters) - Food prices in West Africa have
jumped more than 30% since last year to their highest levels in
nearly a decade due to coronavirus lockdowns and a decline in
cereal production, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday.
More than 31 million people are expected to become food
insecure between June and August, raising the risk of a health
emergency as the region contends with conflicts and COVID-19,
the U.N. organisation said in a statement.
"Soaring prices are pushing a basic meal beyond the reach of
millions of poor families who were already struggling to get
by," said Chris Nikoi, WFP's Regional Director for West Africa.
Across the region, prices of local staples such as rice are
nearly 40% higher than five-year averages and in some countries
staples cost more than double their average price, WFP said.
Attacks by Islamist militants have escalated in the Sahel
region, an arid belt to the south of the Sahara Desert, driving
people off farmland in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and cutting
access to supplies. WFP said almost 6.5 million people in those countries faced
crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in coming months.
The Sahel region alone accounts for approximately half of
the 10 million children under five in West Africa who are
acutely malnourished in West Africa, WFP said.
About 800,000 of the nearly 2.7 million people WFP has
identified as being at risk of famine are in Nigeria's arid
northeastern states, where millions have been displaced by the
long-running Boko Haram insurgency.
Up to 65,000 people in Nigeria's northeast are currently on
the run after an attack by armed groups on Wednesday killed at
least eight people and injured a dozen more.

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