Weeks of heavy rains and floods have affected 5 million people in 19 countries across West and Central Africa, killing hundreds, displacing tens of thousands and destroying many hectares of croplands. Forecasts suggest above-average rainfall will continue through October in many parts of the region.
Farmer Mahamat Kary points to his field of maize covered by floodwaters. “I am so sad, I don't know what to do.” he says. “The harvest is destroyed. The rain that is normally supposed to help us grow food to eat is now becoming a problem.”
The floods have intensified West and Central Africa’s worst hunger crisis in a decade. A mix of factors left 43 million people facing emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity during the lean season between June and August.
“We are suffering a lot here,” says Amboya, a widow and mother of six who lives outside of Chad’s capital Ndjamena, where heavy rains submerged parts of the city. “Our houses have collapsed and our children are starving. It is hard to get food as everything was destroyed by the floods.”
Spiralling prices of food, fuel and fertilizer since the war in Ukraine are also deepening hunger and stirring up socioeconomic tensions – even as debt burdens hamper governments’ abilities to respond, a recent expert assessment found. In Mauritania, for example, wheat is 49 percent higher than the 5-year average, while in Sierra Leone, imported rice price increased by 87 percent. In Burkina Faso, where the price of staple sorghum has risen 85 percent, protracted armed conflict adds an extra challenge.
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