WFP: World can't forget impoverished Sahel region

The head of the World Food Program said winning the Nobel Peace Prize while he was visiting the impoverished and war-weakened Sahel was a message to the world that it should not forget the region.WFP Executive Director David Beasley spoke to reporters during a brief stop in Burkina Faso Friday, shortly after the U.N. agency won the Peace Prize for fighting hunger at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has driven millions more people to the brink of starvation.

“The fact that I was in the Sahel when we received the announcement is really a message from above that, hey world with all the things going on around the world today please don’t forget about the people in the Sahel" said Beasley, who was in neighbouring Niger when he heard the news.

"Please don’t forget about the people that are struggling and dying from starvation.”Beasley said he hoped the prize will propel donors, billionaires and people around the world to alleviate suffering, especially in the face of the coronavirus, which will have a “catastrophic” impact on next year’s funding.

"We can avert famine if we have the money. We can avert destabilization if we have the money. We can avert migration by necessity if we have the money. But we've got to have the money," he said."It's a call to action and I'm specially calling up the billionaires now," Beasley added.

The director noted he was particularly concerned about Burkina Faso, which has faced a violent Islamic insurgency that's cut off swaths of land and pushed millions of people to hunger.More than 3 million people in Burkina Faso are in need of emergency food aid, and some 11,000 people are facing famine conditions, according to the latest security report by the government and U.N. agencies.

(Image Credit: AP)