More than one million children are at risk of severe malnutrition in the Sahel region of West Africa, according to two leading charities.
World Vision and Save the Children say that millions of families are suffering in what is effectively a large-scale nutrition crisis.
They say the main reason is not drought or food deficit, but a lack of protection against shock price rises.
The charities want more investment to protect against food insecurity.
Even in what is considered a normal year, the deaths of 200,000 children can be directly linked to malnutrition, they say.
The Sahel region is an impoverished area that includes Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Chad.
More than 18 million people in the region are currently affected by hunger, the charities say.
World Vision’s emergencies director Paul Sitnam said: “The poorest of the poor people… have virtually no access to any food that is available on the market because of their chronic poverty.”
BBC has the full article
