West Africa food crisis

The G7 must pursue windfall taxes on excess corporate profits including from those making huge returns from surging food and energy prices. The revenues can be used to fund an end to global hunger and to tackle climate change, says Oxfam.

West Africa is hit by its worst food crisis in a decade, with 27 million people going hungry. This number could rise to 38 million this June - a new historic level and already an increase by more than a third over last year- unless urgent action is taken.

Oxfam warned that devastating floods in Niger are affecting more than 500,000 people, most of whose basic needs are not being met.

Following today's donor meeting in Brussels to discuss the food crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, Oxfam deputy humanitarian director Graham MacKay said:

The people of Africa’s Sahel region are facing an increasing risk of widespread food crisis, following a series of crises over recent years which has slashed incomes, undermined livelihoods

In response to the FAO's report "

Some 13 million people are at severe risk from a food crisis which is set to escalate into a full scale humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa if urgent action is not taken.

Musician Baaba Maal visited Mauritania where a food crisis now affects one in four people across the country. Oxfam is calling for urgent interventions to avoid the worst over the coming months, as well as long-term investments to strengthen the resilience of populations.

Oxfam today welcomed a joint statement made by UN agencies, the European Union and USAID issuing a concerted call for action to meet the humanitarian needs of over 11 million people in the

On the eve of the 2012 African Cup of Nations, more than 25 footballers have spoken out in solidarity with millions of people facing hunger across their region.