Drought has left 13 million people on the brink of a full-scale humanitarian crisis in West Africa, a leading British charity has said.
Oxfam said tens of thousands of people in the Sahel region of west and central Africa could die in the coming months if the international community did not distribute much needed aid immediately.
The charity said western governments and aid agencies risked making the mistakes of last year in the Horn of Africa, where the famine may have been far less severe had there been a swifter response to the crisis as it developed.
In parts of Chad, Mali and Niger, the malnutrition rates have exceeded 15 per cent, with more than one million children at risk of starvation. Aid workers declare a famine once malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent.
The next harvest in the region is due in October and the United Nations estimates more than £450 million (€538 million) of aid is needed to avert a humanitarian crisis. Mamadou Biteye, Oxfam regional director in West Africa, said: “Millions of people are on the threshold of a major crisis.
“All signs point to a drought becoming a catastrophe if nothing is done soon.
“The world cannot allow this to happen.
“A concerted aid effort is needed to stop tens of thousands dying due to international complacency.
“We witnessed last year the situation spiralling out of control in East Africa as the aid community failed to act swiftly.
“The worst can be avoided and thousands of lives will be saved if we act now. It’s that simple.”
Oxfam revealed the grim details of the situation in the Sahel region as it launched an emergency appeal to raise £23 million (€27 million), which would be used to reach the one million people most in need of help.
Drought, soaring food prices and regional conflict are being blamed for the crisis.
The cost of food has jumped by up to 50 per cent in places and is expected to rise further this summer.
Villagers in some parts of Chad are so desperate for food they are searching ant hills to retrieve grain collected by ants, while in Niger some 33,000 children have left school to migrate with their parents in search of food.
Erratic rain fall has been blamed for a poor harvest. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, agricultural production in the region is down by 25 per cent.
Harvests in neighbouring Nigeria, Benin and Ghana have been reasonable but Oxfam said it was unlikely there would be any surplus for those in the Sahel region.
1,000 a day die during childbirth
About 1,000 women die each day in childbirth or from preventable complications re-lated to pregnancy, hu-manitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said.
“Worldwide, at any time, 15 per cent of pregnancies incur the risk of a potential fatal complication,” said Kara Blackburn, responsible for women’s health at MSF in a statement to mark International Women’s Day.
“Women must have access to quality obstetric care, whether they live in Sydney, Port-au-Princeor or Mogadishu.”
She said that access should be the same whether at a modern hospital in a major city, in a conflict zone, a refugee camp or in a shelter after an earthquake.
A report entitled Maternal Mortality: A Preventable Crisis, published in Geneva, shows how MSF emergency obstetric care provided in humanitarian crisis situations can save lives.
The organisation believes the solution lies in implementing programmes, especially regarding obstetric complications, the training of specialised personnel and access to appropriate medical equipment.