Several West African nations facing food insecurity; WFP steps up efforts in Niger

Several countries in West Africa, including Niger, Mauritania and Chad, are facing food insecurity crises "unless the international community acts now, the United Nations warned on Friday," AlertNet reports. "Communities in the Sahel, which faces increasingly frequent droughts, have not had time to recover from the last food crisis," which hit the region last year, the news service reports.

The World Food Programme (WFP) "is particularly worried about the situation in Niger where around one million people are in urgent need of food after erratic rains and pest infestations make it likely there will be little or no cereal harvest," AlertNet writes (Fominyen, 10/28). WFP announced on Friday it plans to scale up its operations inside Niger, where one million people are in need of immediate support, the U.N. News Centre notes (10/28).