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•Says 29.5m need emergency food, nutritional assistance
From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has saidHe said 107.5 million people in the sub-region were estimated to be food insecure, and could therefore fall into crisis in the event of shocks, notably in Nigeria (64 million), Niger Republic (7.3 million) and Burkina Faso (5.1 million).
It also said the nutrition crisis persists in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad, where nearly 16.5 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition.
President of ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, stated this in an address on the status of implementation of the community work programmes during the ongoing 2023 first ordinary session of ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
He said no fewer than 29.5 million people were in need of emergency food and nutritional assistance in the sub-region.
He warned that if appropriate measures were not taken, the figure could rise to 42.5 million during the lean season between June and August, 2023.
Touray, who spoke on human capital developments within the period of the report, particularly on human development and social affairs, said key actions undertaken were in the areas of food security, education, voluntary return of migrants, and human security.
“On food security, the ECOWAS region is facing the persistence of factors that aggravate food and nutrition crises. These include civil insecurity, which has resulted in more than 7.5 million internally displaced persons being deprived of their means of existence, housing, productive capital, social network) and access to education and health: it is now extended to the north of Togo and Benin; persistent inflation, which limits households’ ability to access sufficient nutritious food; the worsening of the harmful effects of climate change, which is making food systems more fragile.
“As a result, as of 30 March 2023, unfortunately, despite good production, about 29.5 million people needed emergency food and nutritional assistance. If appropriate measures are not taken, this figure could rise to 42.5 million people during the lean season between June and August 2023.”
He said ECOWAS, together with all its regional partners (CILSS, UEMOA) and international partners, have provided responses to food and nutrition insecurity during 2022 and during the first quarter of 2023, specifically in seven countries of Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Chad.
Touray however said in the face of environmental uncertainties affecting agri-food systems, the ECOWAS Commission would continue to work to strengthen the development of innovative risk management instruments and particularly to optimise and accelerate the scaling up of adaptation strategies in the face of crises and multifaceted risks, including instruments dedicated to anticipation such as observatories and other monitoring mechanisms and preventive action.
“The ECOWAS Commission will continue to mobilise resources for the financing of projects and programmes in support of the member states, and more particularly in 2023 in support of the implementation of the national response plans of the countries currently most affected: namely, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,” Touray said.
