Nearly a million children from Africa's Sahel area will face 'severe wasting', says UN children's agency

Dakar, Senegal: According to a warning from UNICEF on Friday, the Sahel area of Africa will see almost a million young children suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year due to rising food costs, armed conflict, and climate change.

The UN children’s agency said in a statement that “an estimated 970,000 children under 5 from West Africa’s three central Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) will face severe wasting this year.”

The three countries are poor, landlocked and fighting jihadist insurgencies.

Niger is expected to face the highest burden, with 430,000 children estimated to be affected, a 14 per cent decrease on the 2022 total thanks to government efforts.

In Mali, 367,000 children are forecast to face severe wasting, up more than 18 per cent from last year.

“Growing insecurity and conflict means vulnerability is increasing in the region, and it is getting harder to help communities in isolated areas,” UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Marie-Pierre Poirier, said in the statement.

The UN agency said data indicated an increase in child wasting across the Sahel in 2023, including in parts of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Togo.

It called on governments to put child nutrition “high on national priority agendas” and boost national investments in the early prevention, detection and treatment of child malnutrition.

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