Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
GENEVA / SAHEL COVID-19 FOOD INSECURITY
STORY: GENEVA / SAHEL COVID-19 FOOD INSECURITY
TRT: 3:24
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP FOOTAGE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - WFP - 28 FEBRUARY 2020, MOPTI, MALI
1.Various shots, Mali Mopti IDP camp
02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2.SOUNDBITE (English) Eric Branckaert, WFP Senior Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Adviser, speaking via videoconference:
“For the lean season, in the upcoming months June to September, the analysis concluded that we are going from 10.8 million people declared food insecure last year, 2019, to 19.1 million people in 2020. This is an increase of 77 per cent since last year and it is unprecedented.”
FILE - WFP - 28 FEBRUARY 2020, MOPTI, MALI
3. Med shot, woman cooking
02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser:
“Burkina Faso is now, if not the first, at least one of the most or the fastest growing displaced population crisis in the world. It’s a country that virtually had no IDPs, internally displaced populations, 18 months ago and now the latest official figures are in excess of 800,000 people displaced.”
FILE - WFP - 04 MARCH 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
5.Various shots, WFP food distribution centre at Kaya
02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6.SOUNDBITE (French) Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser:
“Over the last 18 months, and the first indicators we had that there was an increase in violence by armed groups in the very north of Burkina Faso in the border areas with Mali, it finally spread, and so the numbers of people displaced by the violence increased at first, gradually; I am talking about the end of 2018, the beginning of 2019 and then increasing very, very rapidly during 2019. So far, it continues to accelerate, so we have gone from almost zero displaced persons in the territory to more than 800,000 people now.”
FILE - WFP - 04 MARCH 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
7.Wide shot, WFP food distribution centre at Kaya
02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
8.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser:
“We need to limit the number of people that gather so we need to fragment the number of sites of distribution. The maximum numbers vary from one country to the other, but in general not more than 50 people can be gathered and even when those people can be gathered, we are implementing standard operating procedures to minimize the transmission of the disease, so there is a temperature check for all people coming into the distribution sites and we have to respect one metre between every individual coming in to get the food assistance.”
FILE - WFP - 04 MARCH 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
9.Wide shot, WFP food distribution centre at Kaya
02 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
10.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser:
“Some of the bigger companies, and indeed the main suppliers globally, are in countries that are currently under strict confinement and a very reduced level of production. A lot of the nutritious products are produced in India or France, for example, where factories have had to reduce or close, or reduce significantly their production. We have big concerns on this, and our supply chain colleagues together with UNICEF, are looking at locally available enriched foods to complement this.”
FILE - WFP - 04 MARCH 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
11. Various shots, WFP food distribution centre at Kaya
12. Various shots, health worker with local residence
Food insecurity levels in the Sahel region are “spiralling out of control”, the World Food Programme (WFP) said today, as it expressed concerns about the potential impact on humanitarian supply chains because of restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the Central Sahel in Africa – encompassing Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – more than five million people face severe food insecurity ahead of the coming lean season, according to data released by WFP and other humanitarian partners.
Humanitarians have repeatedly warned that chronic insecurity linked to successive drought and violent extremists who exploit the lack of a strong State presence have created an avoidable crisis, which WFP said has now extended to the coastal countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Forecasts indicate that Burkina Faso will see food insecurity more than triple, to more than 2.1 million people in June, up from at least 680,000 at the same time last year.
The number of people going hungry is also expected to rise in Mali, with 1.3 million people vulnerable, along with two million people in Niger.
Speaking to journalists via videoconference, Eric Branckaert, WFP Senior Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Adviser said, “for the lean season, in the upcoming months June to September, the analysis concluded that we are going from 10.8 million people declared food insecure last year, 2019, to 19.1 million people in 2020,” adding that “this is an increase of 77 per cent since last year and it is unprecedented.”
Citing Burkina Faso’s experience as illustrative of the plight facing its Sahel neighbours, Alexandre Lecuziat, WFP Senior Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser, said, “one of the most or the fastest growing displaced population crisis in the world. It’s a country that virtually had no IDPs, internally displaced populations, 18 months ago and now the latest official figures are in excess of 800,000 people displaced.”
Speaking via videoconference, Lecuziat said that although WFP has access across the Sahel to populations in need, the agency is extremely concerned about the impact of the new coronavirus on a region with one of the weakest healthcare systems in the world.
If it emerges in a similar way to much of the rest of the world, it will lead to “a serious deterioration” in people’s resilience, as markets and borders close, preventing herders from moving their animals to fresh pasture, he explained.
Social distancing measures have already been implemented by WFP and its partners during aid deliveries, in a bid to keep staff and communities safe.
Lecuziat said, “we need to limit the number of people that gather so we need to fragment the number of sites of distribution,” adding that “the maximum numbers vary from one country to the other, but in general not more than 50 people can be gathered; and even when those people can be gathered, we are implementing standard operating procedures to minimize the transmission of the disease. So there is a temperature check for all people coming into the distribution sites and we have to respect one metre between every individual coming in to get the food assistance.”
At a wider logistical level the UN agency is also exploring all options to ensure that vital aid supply lines can withstand the expected disruption of COVID-19.
Lecuziat explained, “some of the bigger companies, and indeed the main suppliers globally, are in countries that are currently under strict confinement and a very reduced level of production.”
He continued, “a lot of the nutritious products are produced in India or France, for example, where factories have had to reduce or close, or reduce significantly their production. We have big concerns on this, and our supply chain colleagues together with UNICEF, are looking at locally available enriched foods to complement this.”
In a statement, WFP said that it had assisted 1.5 million people in Burkina Faso and Mali in February.
It has appealed for more support to tackle the crisis and urgently requires $208 million for the next five months to carry out its lifesaving operations.
Download
There is no media available to download.
