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.

At the end of April, WFP launched its food assistance activities in Oukout in the Ziguinchor region of Senegal. In total, WFP aims to assist over 800,000 people in Senegal this year as part of its response to the food crisis in the Sahel region.

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.

 In early March, Toshinori Sato of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries traveled to the Fatick region of central Senegal to visit the Projet Bas Fonds (PBF), a WFP supported project that helps communities reclaim unused land and increase agricultural production. 

Senegalese artist Ismael Lo is writing a song for WFP Senegal on the importance of consuming iodized salt as part of a month-long campaign to combat iodine deficiency in the country. 

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.

12 WFP aviation officers are now qualified to dispatch an aircraft after completing a five-week-long course in Dakar in December. 

Business is booming for Mouhamdou Boy Sow, a shopkeeper from Senegal who used to think he’d have to go abroad to find a better life. But a new programme to help families buy food from shops like his has helped turn around the local economy and given Mouhamdou a reason to stay home.

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.