Funding Crisis Leaves Millions of Africans Without Aid

Funding constraints mean that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to limit emergency aid to only 6.2 million of the most vulnerable people in need across West Africa, scaling back from an initial target of assisting 11.6 million, the agency has announced.

The agency's emergency food and nutrition assistance operation in the Sahel began in June, focussing on refugees, newly displaced people, malnourished children under five, pregnant women and breastfeeding women and girls.

Food insecurity overall has reached a 10-year high in West and Central Africa, affecting 47.2 million people during the June-August lean season.

Mali and Chad will be hit the hardest, with 800,000 people at risk of resorting to desperate measures to cope, including engaging in survival sex, early marriage, or joining armed groups, WFP has said.

This article originally appeared on AllAfrica.

Image via The Guardian.