1 in 4 people in Africa face food security crisis

​​​​​​​By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday raised the alarm over the "alarming hunger situation" in Africa, saying that millions of people there are facing a food security crisis.

In a statement, the ICRC said that "more than a quarter of Africa’s people – 346 million – are facing a food security crisis that has millions of families skipping meals every day, an alarming hunger situation that risks intensifying in the coming months."

Saying that the crisis stretches from Mauritania and Burkina Faso in the west to Somalia and Ethiopia in the east, the humanitarian organization announced that it will "ramp up operations in 10 countries in response, in close coordination with other components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, to support an additional 2.8 million people."

Dominik Stillhart, the head of ICRC's global operations, said in a statement: "This is a disaster going largely unnoticed. Millions of families are going hungry and children are dying because of malnutrition."

He added: "We are scaling up our operations in countries like Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria and Burkina Faso and many others to try and help as many people as we can, but the number of people going without food and water is staggering.”

The ICRC stressed that "conflict, climatic shocks like the droughts in East Africa and cumulative poor rainfalls in West Africa, a dramatic rise in displaced people, and surging food and fuel prices have contributed to the overwhelming needs in the region."

"Complicating matters further, many of the affected countries are still reeling from the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," it added.

According to the ICRC, the "international armed conflict in Ukraine has contributed to rising food and fuel costs and longer delivery times due to supply route disruptions."

"We need more people on board with this crisis," Stillhart said, adding that "a crisis of this scale needs a concerted effort from governments, humanitarian partners, and donors to focus on mid- and long-term support to help those affected get back on their feet."