THE recent upheavals in Africa have one thing in common: they are all helping to fuel the growing crisis in the Sahel.

For a sense of the scale of the problem, consider the amount of relief money the UN has called for to aid the increasingly lawless region: $1bn. Aid agencies, meanwhile, are warning of severe food shortages affecting up to 15 million people.

The Sahel, a resource-rich region that borders the Sahara, has porous borders and a growing number of Islamic separatists. It also has a complex history of food shortages and security problems.

Of the families fleeing the violence, 20 per cent have at least one child suffering from severe acute malnutrition, according to Action Against Hunger (AAH). “These are families who have had to hastily flee the violence and they don’t have access to basic products like clothing, blankets or cooking utensils,” said AAH’s emergency team leader, Helen Valencia. “The conflict in the north is an aggravating factor to an already fragile situation.”

At least 200,000 people are estimated to have fled Mali into Niger and Burkina Faso, which are already under pressure to feed their own populations. Experts predict that the situation will worsen after rebels made further advances into key strategic towns on the back of news that the democratically elected government had been ousted.

“People are arriving in Niger exhausted, hungry and in need of the very basics,” said Chris Palusky, World Vision’s food crisis response manager for Mali and Niger. “Niger is struggling to cope with the influx of refugees and the extra strain is pushing families to the brink of survival.”

In addition to the armed Tuareg rebels, migrant workers from Niger and Chad who relied on work in Libya to supplement family incomes have been forced to leave Libya, removing an income source and further stretching scarce food supplies.

Reliance on imports of food from Nigeria, another traditional coping strategy for many families in Niger, has been hampered by border closures following fears that Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is setting up cells in the country and spreading from its base in northern Nigeria.

The closure of the border near Maiduguri in Nigeria, where Boko Haram is thought to be based, has prevented the crucial shipment of food and livestock. Since then the price of staple foodstuffs has doubled, experts say.  — The Guardian, London