World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

WFP has launched an emergency operation to deliver life-saving food assistance to thousands of people fleeing conflict in Mali. As refugees stream into areas already strained by drought in the Sahel, it's imperative to reach them with assistance in time for the summer Hunger Season.

Getting food assistance to hungry people in Chad and other remote areas of Africa's Sahel region is hard at the best of times. And with the region now hit by a major hunger crisis, the pressure on WFP's logistics team is higher than ever. Some new mapping technology is providing welcome support.

 In the Sahelian band of Chad, where pastures are extremely dry and harvests are poor after erratic rains, 1.2 million people will require emergency food assistance over the coming months.

For the third time in a decade, drought in the Sahel region of Africa is threatening millions of people with hunger. But how do people survive in these situations and what are we doing to help them? Here are the answers to eight questions about the current hunger crisis in the Sahel and WFP's response to it.

For the third time in a decade, drought has returned to the Sahel region of West Africa bringing hunger to millions of people across the region. WFP is pre-positioning food assistance ahead of the annual lean season when the vulnerable – especially women and children – are most at risk of malnutrition.

In early September, WFP nutrition focal points and their government counterparts from 18 countries across West Africa gathered in Dakar for a four-day workshop. 
 

After the suspension of the Libyan corridor from Benghazi, Libya, to Abéché, Chad, WFP had to find another way to transport food to more than one million Sudanese refugees, Chadian IDPs and members of the host population who depend on WFP's assistance in Eastern Chad.

For hundreds of thousands of Darfuri refugees, WFP's food rations have been essential for preventing hunger and malnutrition. WFP has provided life-saving food assistance to Sudanese refugees in Chad since 2003.

As harvest time approaches in the Eastern Sahel, rates of malnutrition among children are at critical levels in Chad. A crippling lean season has left many children weak and in of need nutritional support. Two-year old Hassan is one of those now getting this badly needed support. Watch video