WFP: Mauritania food crisis 'three times worse than 2010'

Fri Feb 10, 2012

The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that the food crisis in Mauritania as a result of drought could be three times worse than the one which struck the West African nation two years ago.

“The levels of food insecurity are three times higher than in the same period in 2012,” WFP said in a report published on Thursday.

The world body noted that some 700,000 people do not have enough to eat in Mauritania, calling for "urgent action to help the poorest households and avoid a major humanitarian crisis."

Mauritania with the support of the international community has carried out a 112-million euro ($148 million) "Hope 2012" project since January.

The Sahel belt of Africa, which stretches from Senegal to Eritrea, is particularly sensitive to drought and famine. Some 10 million people were affected by a severe food crisis in the region in 2010.

International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sounded the alarm that the Sahel could be crippled by food shortages in 2012 as a result of poor rains last year.

Oxfam has announced that harvests plummeted 25 percent in the region compared to 2010 because of lack of rains. This will leave more than one million children threatened with severe malnutrition.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225969.html.