International Development written question – answered at on 23 January 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment his Department has made of the risk of a food crisis developing in the Sahel; and what steps his Department is taking to counter any such risk.
The EC Humanitarian Office (ECHO) estimates that 6.8 million men, women and children across the Sahel region of west Africa are at risk of severe food shortages in the coming months. This is due to a decline in the 2011 harvest, combined with unseasonably high cereal prices across west Africa.
In direct response to these early warning signals, my Department has announced an urgent package of support to help mitigate the crisis. British aid will help treat 68,000 severely malnourished children in Niger, Chad and Mali and provide animal feed and vaccinations to 30,000 families to keep their livestock alive.
In addition, British aid is already reaching those in need through the release of £7.8 million from the United Nation's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)—to which Britain is a major contributor.
DFID officials will continue to monitor the situation closely and will liaise closely with their opposite numbers in other governments, and with officials from the Red Cross, the United Nations and leading non-governmental organisations.
DFID officials will be visiting the region later this month to further assess the current situation.
Yes0 people think so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.