AFRICA - One million children risk dying of hunger in the Sahel region

Timbuktu (Agenzia Fides) - The international organization Action contre la Faim (ACF) has launched an alarm about the danger more than 10 million people run, and especially one million children, who are running out of food reserves needed to survive in the Sahel region. As it said in a statement released by ACF and sent to Fides, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad in the month of March will suffer a period of famine lasting at least six months. It is still a crisis foretold: the warning systems that follow the rainfall, the condition of crops, food prices in local markets, do not make mistakes. This year the hunger gap, the period of time from when the reserves end until the next harvest is delayed, and between 5 and 7 million households will have finished by October the food stocks before the next harvest. Consequently, the international humanitarian organizations estimate that there will be at least 2.6 million cases of acute malnutrition, and of these, one million African children will suffer severe malnutrition, the step closer to death. Those most affected are children under 5 years of age, pregnant mothers and those who are breastfeeding. To limit the effects of this crisis, ACF has initiated a program of emergency and mobilized international forces without waiting for the emergency. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 31/01/2012)