It has left more than 1.2 million people in the Sahelian Chad region of north-west Africa with limited food stocks, this amid high cereal prices and reduced incomes.
In a regional food security analysis report released this week, FEWSNET said despite the likelihood of an improvement in pastoralist incomes up to July, 850,000 people would continue to battle food shortages up to the end of the farming season in September.
“Urgent humanitarian assistance is required to protect livelihoods and mitigate food consumption gaps for displaced and poor resident households in Sahelian Chad. Poorly distributed 2015 rainfall across Sahelian Chad led to a significant drop in 2015/16 agriculture production in Kanem, Wadi Fira and Batha Regions where harvests were more than 50 percent below five-year averages according to official estimates.
“In Barh el Gazel, Guera, and Sila Regions, 2015/16 harvests were 24 to 27 percent below average. These declines in production have limited market supplies of staple foods. Furthermore, poor rainfall and the subsequent decline in pasture and water availability have contributed to a deterioration in livestock body conditions. Regional Boko Haram conflict is another important driver of food insecurity, particularly in the Lac Region,” FEWSNET said.
According to estimates from the United Nations Office for the Coordination Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) more than 100,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who include Chadian returnees from Nigeria and Nigerian refugees are displaced in this region.
“The conflict has disrupted market access and cross-border trade, impacted regional livestock movements, reduced the area planted in off-season crops, and disrupted livelihood activities, such as fishing, all of which are limiting food access for many IDPs/returnees, refugees and poor resident households.
“Local resident food security has been further affected by the hosting of displaced households and increased competition for labour opportunities. Finally, the conflict has also disrupted trade flows in and around Lake Chad, exacerbating the impacts of poor harvests on market supplies,” FEWSNET said.
Further, the report said the decline in crop production had forced poor households to turn to buying their food requirements, while cereal prices had gone up amid high fuel costs, disrupted reduced trade-flows and rising malnutrition. Livestock prices had also declined by as much as 58% and the situation was expected to worsen in the next four months.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which started four years ago in Nigeria, has since engulfed the entire Lake Chad Basin and forced Cameroun, Niger, Chad and Benin to contribute thousands of troops to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) which is fighting the group with arms and special counter-terrorism training from the United States, Britain and France.
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