UN: Nearly a million children in the Sahel will be malnourished this year

(Patria) - Nearly a million children in the African Sahel region will face severe malnutrition this year due to high food prices, conflicts, and climate change, UNICEF warned today, AFP reports.
"An estimated 970,000 children under the age of 5 from the three central Sahel countries of West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger) will face severe malnutrition this year," the UN children's agency said in a statement.

These three countries are poor, landlocked, and fighting jihadist insurgencies, it said.

Niger is expected to bear the brunt, with 430,000 children affected, a 14 percent decrease compared to 2022 thanks to government efforts. In Mali, 367,000 children are projected to face severe malnutrition, an increase of more than 18 percent compared to last year.

"Increasing insecurity and conflict mean that vulnerability in the region is growing and it is becoming more difficult to help communities in isolated areas," said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

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

They called on governments to place children's nutrition "high on national priorities" and encourage national investment in early prevention, detection, and treatment of child malnutrition.