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Burkina Faso is Facing a Hunger Catastrophe

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA - The World Food Program reports Burkina Faso is facing an acute
   shortage of food, with more than 3.2 million people going hungry in
   this conflict-ridden country.

   There has been a 50 percent rise in the number of people struggling to
   feed themselves and their families since March. The World Food Program
   warns the situation is likely to worsen in the current lean season-the
   periodwhen food stocks are at their lowest ahead ofthe September
   harvest.

   WFP reports people in two provinces in the Sahel region,Oudalanand
   Soum, have reached near starvation level.It says fighting by a myriad
   of Jihadist and armed groups in the region has forced thousands of
   people to flee their homes,preventing themfrom cultivatingtheir crops.

   WFP spokeswoman ElisabethByrssays insecurity and conflict are the
   maindrivers ofgrowing hunger in Burkina Faso.

   "Most of those forced to flee are subsistence farmers and livestock
   herders who have had to abandon their farms, homes, assets,
   livelihoods. Some farmers were not able to harvest their fields and
   most of the displaced are no longer able to grow crops.This is dramatic
   in a country where 80 percent of the population lives from
   agriculture,"Byrs said.

   The United Nations reports a surge of attacks by armed groups over the
   last two years has prompted more than one million people in Burkina
   Faso to flee their homes.

   Byrssays WFP is racing against the clock to prevent a hunger
   catastrophe. She says the agency has continued to scale up its
   assistance over the past two years to try to keep pace with the growing
   humanitarian crisis.

   She says WFP ishoping to provide food assistance to 1.2 million people
   this month, but money is running out. She says the agency urgently
   needs $51 million to respond to the growing needs.

   She warns WFP will be forced to cut food rations without immediate
   funding, putting many lives at risk.

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