W.African footballers want urgent response to Sahel hunger threat -Oxfam
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:24 GMT
A Tuareg woman walks during a sandstorm in Ingal, northern Niger September 18, 2011. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
By George Fominyen
DAKAR (AlertNet) - West African footballers set to play in the African Cup of Nations that kicks off on Saturday have appealed for an early international response to a looming hunger crisis in their region of origin.
Between 5 and 9 million people in countries just below the Sahara face hunger next year following low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances from migrants, aid agencies have warned.
“If we act now we could save the lives of women and children who are always the first victims of food crises,” Seydou Keita of Mali and of FC Barcelona of Spain said in a statement.
“If we act urgently, millions of children will be saved from malnutrition and will have the chance to grow healthily and to succeed at school,” Keita added.
The players drawn from the national teams of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal, which are among the countries threatened by the food crisis, are backing a campaign by the international charity Oxfam.
Oxfam says its “we can win the match against hunger” campaign, to run through the African Cup of Nations co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, seeks to remind people that there is a serious issue that warrants speedy international solidarity.
The African Nations Cup is the continent’s biggest and most popular sports tournament.
“At the same time as millions of people are watching the African Nations Cup and getting excited, getting very engaged in the tournament, there are also millions of people in their home countries who are threatened by hunger,” said Steve Cockburn, Oxfam’s campaigns and policy manager for West Africa.
He said the players, who include Demba Bâ of Sénégal and of Newcastle United, Charles Kaboré of Burkina Faso and of Olympique de Marseille, and Lawali Idrissa from Niger are concerned about the situation and determined to use their fame and appeal to support their governments' actions to tackle the looming crisis.
“The situation is serious but the worst is not inevitable. We know about the crisis a lot in advance and we have the opportunity to act and that means there is responsibility from all sides to act,” Cockburn told AlertNet.
Oxfam has welcomed the European Union (E.U.) decision to double its humanitarian aid to the Sahel and hopes that other donors will follow, Cockburn said.
The E.U. is doubling humanitarian aid to all countries in the Sahel region from over 45 million euros ($58 million) in 2011 to 105 million euros this year as a measure to respond to the looming food crisis, the E.U.'s crisis response commissioner Kristalina Georgieva announced while visiting Chad and Niger this week.
“The situation is quite severe,” Georgieva told AlertNet on the phone from Chad after visiting the town of Mao in the west of the country on Friday.
“Group after group of people I met, women and children, told me they are worried about the year and they want help” she said.
“Help has to be provided by the end of February to the most vulnerable people especially children under five, pregnant women and nursing mothers,” Georgieva added.
Another package is being negotiated with other institutions of the European Community to bring total E.U. support for long term food assistance and food security issues in the Sahel to 255 million euros.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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