News Center- The magnitude of severe food insecurity and related malnutrition continues to intensify in the Sahel region of Africa. “In the Central Sahel alone (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), 7.5 million people are affected, up from 5.4 million last year. More than 2,500 people are due to face catastrophic, famine-like conditions if no urgent action is taken,” the IRC said in a statement on Monday.

“We are extremely concerned about the rising levels of hunger and unacceptably high malnutrition levels in children under five: in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, acute malnutrition rates are expected to reach ​​critical levels of over 15% during the imminent lean season - this is more than one in six children!” the statement said.

According to the statement, the situation “could yet worsen, and spread to Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria during the lean season, the time between harvests, from June until August.”