The United Nations World Food Programme, WFP, said it needed more money to help millions of people in West and Central Africa survive through the lean season.

The World Food Programme warned that due to the present cash crisis, it would only be able to assist slightly more than half of the 11.6 million people targeted under an emergency food operation in countries such as Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Chad, where an inflow of refugees from Sudan has put further strain on scarce resources.

Food insecurity in West and Central Africa has reached a 10-year high, according to a March research by the Cadre Harmonise, a regional food security framework.

Malnutrition rates have also risen, with the World Food Programme predicting that 16.5 million children under the age of five will be acutely malnourished this year.

Margot Vandervelden, Regional Director ad interim, for Western Africa said “Millions of families will lack sufficient food reserves to sustain them until the next harvests in September and many will receive little to no assistance to tide them through the gruelling months ahead.”

The UN agency said it requires $794 million to respond properly to needs in the five Sahel area countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger from July to December.

Mali and Chad were identified to be the countries that will be mostly affected with 800,000 people at risk of resorting to desperate measures to cope, including engaging in survival sex, early marriage, or joining armed groups.

Reuters