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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 19 april 2023

Hunger is soaring and spreading across West Africa, says U.N.

By SAM MEDNICK fear of reprisals from speak-
Associated Press ing publicly.
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — As civilians flee attacks
Hunger is soaring and and militants expand their
spreading across West Af- reach in Burkina Faso, hun-
rica, with some 48 million ger also is spreading across
people, a 10-year-high, the border to neighboring
facing food insecurity in Togo and Benin.
the conflict-riddled region, Nearly 1 million people are
the United Nations warned expected to be food in-
Tuesday. Driven primarily secure in Benin and Togo,
by violence as well as the almost double the number
economic fallout from CO- from two years earlier, ac-
VID-19 and inflation, food cording to the UN. For the
insecurity has heavily im- first time, both countries
pacted Burkina Faso, Mali, asked aid groups for assis-
Niger, northern Nigeria and tance in dealing with the
Mauritania, U.N. officials influx of displaced people
said at a press conference and refugees. “We’re re-
in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. ally concerned with the
U.N. officials said that for coastal countries. If there’s
the first time, some 45,000 not enough done in Burkina
people in the Sahel region, (Faso), the risk of increasing
the arid expanse below the Malnourished children wait for treatment in the pediatrics department of Boulmiougou hospital in numbers of people having
Sahara Desert, are on the Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on April 15, 2022. to cross the border to find
brink of starvation, one step Associated Press safe haven or livelihood
away from famine. The vast Sahel. ... In many areas, it farms and lined the roads town in the east that has opportunities because
majority facing catastroph- is getting much more diffi- with explosives, making it been under blockade for they cannot use their land
ic levels of hunger, 42,000, cult for families to find nutri- hard for residents to move more than a year told The or their livestock have been
are in Burkina Faso, the of- tious food to eat, especially freely and forcing aid Associated Press. attacked will increase,”
ficials reported. where we have communi- agencies to fly in food as- A few aid groups have said Alexandre Le Cuziat, a
“The situation is worrying,” ties under blockade.” sistance, which is costly. managed to provide rice, senior emergency advisor
said Ann Defraye, a re- Violence linked to al-Qaida People living in besieged oil and beans, but women for the World Food Program
gional nutrition specialist for and the Islamic State group towns in Burkina Faso say can’t grind millet because in West and Central Africa.
UNICEF in West and Central has ravaged both Burkina they’re struggling to sur- there’s no gas and people “There’s still a prevention
Africa. “Last year, we saw a Faso and Mali for years. vive. can’t leave the town be- window in the coastal
large increase (31%) in the Jihadis have blockaded “We don’t have enough cause it’s surrounded by ji- countries, but it’s closing
numbers of children admit- dozens of villages in the food. People eat what they hadis, the resident said. He fast. We saw it close fast in
ted to health facilities with region, cut off access to get,” a resident of Pama, a would not give his name for the Sahel,” Le Cuziat said.q
severe wasting across the

Clinton optimistic Northern Ireland govt will be revived

By JILL LAWLESS tionalist parties. border between Northern ruary to remove many of the devolved institutions
Associated Press The DUP walked out more Ireland and the rest of the the border checks. and get on with the job of
BELFAST, Northern Ireland than a year ago to pro- U.K. It has refused to return, Clinton said the deal, delivering for the people of
(AP) — Former U.S. Presi- test post-Brexit trade rules despite a deal reached by known as the Windsor Northern Ireland.”
dent Bill Clinton said Tues- that imposed a customs the U.K. and the EU in Feb- Framework, had gone a “The biggest threat to
day he was optimistic that long way to resolving the Northern Ireland’s place in
one of Northern Ireland’s political impasse. the union is failing to deliver
main political parties would “So I expect that, in the on these priorities,” he told
soon end a boycott that not too distant future, the a Good Friday Agreement
has kept the regional gov- barriers to bringing up the commemoration confer-
ernment on ice for more government again will ence in Belfast.
than a year. be removed,” he told the The political impasse has
Clinton said he had met BBC. “Because everybody left Northern Ireland’s civil
with Democratic Unionist knows that economically, servants running a skeleton
Party leader Jeffrey Don- socially and politically, caretaker government,
aldson on Monday, and “I they would be worse off if with no politicians in place
left that meeting more opti- they packed it in over the to make big decisions amid
mistic than I entered it.” current level of disagree- a cost-of-living crisis and a
Clinton is in Belfast this week ment.” creaking public health ser-
to mark 25 years since the U.K. Northern Ireland Sec- vice.
Good Friday Agreement retary Chris Heaton-Harris The other parties in the
ended decades of sectar- From left, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former US also urged the DUP to go Northern Ireland Assembly
ian bloodshed. The deal President Bill Clinton, and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attend back into government, have expressed frustration,
established a Northern an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday saying those who valued but Donaldson said Tues-
Ireland government with Agreement at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland’s place in day that his party would
power shared between Monday, April 17, 2023. the United Kingdom should not be “browbeaten into
British unionist and Irish na- Associated Press “put the union first, restore submission.”q