The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières warned on Tuesday of the risk that the food insecurity crises that hit several African countries this year, exacerbated by climate change, inflation or conflict, could explode “sharply” in 2023.
For the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), “the year 2023 means a continuation and even a possible exacerbation of the potential food insecurity crises announced in 2022,” said José Mas, the organization’s deputy director of operations, in an interview with Ef.
In this sense, MSF targets countries in the Sahel, such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, as well as the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan.
More than 35 million people are starving in West and Central Africa due to continued insecurity and rising prices in the wake of Ukraine’s war and Covid-19according to the latest figures from the United Nations (UN).
East African countries, meanwhile, are battling the worst drought in 40 years, affecting an estimated 20.2 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, a number that has doubled in the past five months, according to the UN.
“We are preparing to respond to potential nutritional emergencies that may arise from these food crises,” said Mas.
The organization has not yet detected “generalized hunger situations” in any country, but did warn of “localized areas with very alarming indicators”.
At the end of September, MSF reported a “catastrophic” malnutrition crisis in northwestern Nigeria, an area regularly attacked by gunmen.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) stressed that many of these humanitarian crises are exacerbated by conflict, such as the war between the Ethiopian federal government and the northern province of Tigray – which reached a peace deal on November 2 after two years of fighting – and terrorism in the northern Mozambique.
“War not only impacts people directly, with deaths, injuries and sexual violence, but also indirectly, causing forced displacement or limiting their access to health services,” said the humanitarian worker.
For 2023, Mas also highlighted the effects of COVID-19 on the medical systems of countries with protracted conflicts, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRCongo) or the Central African Republic (CAR), where the pandemic has interrupted routine vaccination. campaigns.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, “diseases like measles, which are preventable by vaccination,” are being seen “back on the table,” he lamented.
Source: DN
