West Africa faces historic food crisis

DAKAR, Senegal－West Africa is facing its worst food crisis on record driven by conflict, drought, and the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on food prices and availability, said aid agencies on Tuesday.

There are about 27 million people suffering from hunger in the region and that number could rise to 38 million by June, a 40 percent increase from last year and a historic high, said 11 international aid organizations in a joint statement.

Large swathes of West Africa, including parts of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, are facing insurgencies that have forced millions of people off their land. Along with Chad, those are the countries most affected by hunger.

The region has also seen worsening floods and droughts due to the effects of climate change, making it harder to farm. Cereal production in 2021/22 was down 39 percent year-on-year in Niger and 15 percent in Mali, according to West Africa's Food Crisis Prevention Network.

On top of that, global food prices have surged and trade has been disrupted due to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. Border closures due to COVID-19 have also had a negative impact, the network said.

"What is new and worsening is mainly all the displaced people and abandoned land because of conflict, but also we are witnessing new drivers," said Assalama Dawalack Sidi, Oxfam's regional director for West and Central Africa.

Six West African countries import 30 to 50 percent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Much-needed funding

The conflict in Ukraine also risks redirecting much-needed funding from the region, Sidi warned.

"Many donors have already indicated that they may cut funding for Africa to pay for refugees in Europe," she said. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has given a stark warning that the conflict in Ukraine "means hunger in Africa".

The IMF's sister organization, the World Bank, has also said a dozen of the world's poorest countries may now default over the next year, which would be "the largest spate of debt crises in developing economies in a generation".

With Ukraine and Russia accounting for 29 percent of the world's wheat exports and 19 percent of maize shipments, prices of these have gone up another 25 to 30 percent this year.

"For many countries, these (energy and food price) rises will have repercussions for budgets, for subsidies and for political and social stability," said Viktor Szabo, an emerging market portfolio manager at abrdn in London.

Agencies Via Xinhua