Tag Archive for: water security

An estimated 10 million people are struggling with growing food shortages in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, which have all declared emergencies and appealed for international assistance. Aid agencies and governments are now bracing to reach remote communities before the situation deteriorates into a famine.

Adding pressure to already strained budgets, the price of food is expected to remain high and quite volatile on the heels of this year's extreme floods and droughts. Though price increases are occurring globally, they are hitting hardest in the developing world.

Meteorologists are hopeful for future rainfall, though they say the current disaster was preventable. The lack of rain, which is also affecting neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, and political instability have tipped Somalia into a food crisis that could persist, even as drought conditions abate.