A million refugees urgently need shelter, food and water
Sahel: Photos of a food crisis foretold
In the Sahel region of West Africa, the last rainy season has been both too short and too weak to meet the needs of farmers and pastoralists. On top of the drought, pests have further weakened food production in some regions.
Theses photos, taken at the end of 2011 in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad, show the extent of the food crisis people are already facing. But by investing now in the ability of vulnerable populations to cope, the worst impacts of the crisis can still be avoided.
Oxfam is hoping to reach one million people across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger with humanitarian aid. Read more on the situation in the Sahel region and how Oxfam is responding: Food crisis in Sahel
All photos credit Irina Fuhrmann/Oxfam.
Dry sorghum field in Burkina Faso. Sorghum is one of the main grains in the region. Farmers in the region have seen harvests fall by 14 percent in Burkina Faso and 46 percent in Mauritania.
Soudre Amado, farmer in Burkina Faso, has had to sow five times this year as the lack of rain dried up the plants before they could grow. He finally managed to cultivate a small portion of the sorghum field on which he concentrated all his efforts, to obtain a meager harvest with which he will have to feed his ten children.
The group of women in the community of Watigué in central Burkina Faso has planted 17 hectares of rice with improved seeds distributed by Oxfam. But the lack of rain has dried the crops so the harvest can only be used as animal fodder.
Mauritania has also experienced a poor rainy season and people are trying to cope with a very difficult situation, especially in the rural South. Aliyin Would Eleiat, the chief of a village in the Gorgol region, shows one of the few wells that still have some water: it will have to serve as the lifeline for about 75 families living in this community.
Some wild trees such as the "jujubiers", which bears vitamin-rich fruit, are also affected by poor rainfall. This year, women in southern Mauritania cannot count with the small income from the sale of wild fruits.
Cheikh Tijani lives in the middle of a plain used as a grazing ground: "Pastors are coming from other regions of Mauritania and even from neighboring countries in search of the little grass is left. But the grass is now yellow, and many pastors have been forced to undertake the transhumance five months ahead of schedule. If you do not get food for the livestock, we will lose our only source of income."
The Senegal River, which forms the natural border between Mauritania and Senegal, is too low for the season. Normally, after the rainy season, flooded riverbanks make it possible to grow rice and vegetables. This year, only areas with a motor pump have access to irrigation.
Some communities located near the river are working hard to maintain their crops. But the land is dry and the scarcity of resources makes their work difficult. In Oud Guedara people have to sleep in the fields to prevent cattle grazing freely in the area from invading them.
The villagers of Azoza in the Guéra region of Chad has been hit hard by the drought. The rainy season, too late and too short, did not provide enough water for the crops and several insect and bird pests have caused major damage. Women have turned to looking for seeds in anthills in order to survive.
"Gathering grains from the anthills is only a temporary solution because the nests do not contain enough grains to cope with the shortage and wait for the next harvest," says Mahamat, the village chief of Azoza. "Our community has not resorted to this practice since the famines of 1984."
In addition to the drought, crops have been ravaged by birds, grasshoppers and other pests. In the middle of his bérébéré field (white sorghum), this farmer is trying to recover what he can.
Without the pastures, which have been withered by the drought, stockbreeders and agro-pastoralists are struggling to feed their animals, which are their primary means of subsistence. Oxfam has launched a program in the region of Bahr El Ghazal focusing on animal health, to help villagers to better resist shocks and to cope with this crisis.
Oxfam is helping pastoral communities to identify and train "animal husbandry assistants," particularly women, capable of providing care for animals, disseminating good husbandry practices, providing communities with small care equipment and organizing vaccination campaigns. Oxfam also helps develop farming techniques and water supply infrastructure.
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