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West Africa

Food shortages remain a painful fact of life for millions of people living in nine countries across West Africa.

A combination of factors including drought, poor harvests, political insecurity, chronic poverty and high food prices have conspired to leave them facing a continuing battle for survival.

Tearfund is responding in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger, buoyed by a generous response to our West Africa emergency appeal that was launched in 2012.

Donations have enabled us to not only provide immediate aid but also do long term work to address the deep-seated causes of hunger.

You can learn more about the crisis, including an analysis of the causes, the people affected and how Tearfund is responding in the updates section below.

  • 1 May 2013 - Farmer Ishaka is one of 475,000 people the UN says have been forced by conflict from their homes in northern Mali. Here the father-of-five tells of his experience and how the church has been able to help.

  • 11 April 2013 - George Ouedrago moved to Kogola village, in northern Burkina Faso, seven years ago and soon found that working the soil was very tough.

  • 10 April 2013 - The outlook for West Africa’s hunger crisis in 2013 has improved in some parts of the region compared to 2012 when 18 million people were at risk of hunger.

  • 8 April 2013 - After months of struggling to get by and not knowing where the next meal would come from, Maimouna Cisse has finally received some respite from the hunger that’s blighting Mali.

  • 5 December 2012 - Tearfund partners are preparing to step up help for thousands of people displaced by Mali’s civil conflict.

  • 7 November 2012 - The chief of Kaiwa Ganwo village in Niger is experiencing an emotion about food that has been in short supply in recent months – joy.

  • 8 August 2012 - Photographer Richard Hanson recently went to Niger to cover the West Africa food crisis for Tearfund. In this short film Richard talks about his visit, the people he met and how Tearfund partners are helping the hungry - accompanied by some of the images he captured.

  • 2 August 2012 - Conflict in Mali has led to 375,000 people fleeing for their lives prompting concerns of a long term humanitarian disaster.

  • 26 June 2012 - Manno Gayya is something of a rarity in his village, in that he’s one of the few men still living there.

  • 25 June 2012 - Extreme explorer Bear Grylls is urging people to help those affected by the severe food crisis in West Africa.

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