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A potentially catastrophic food crisis in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa could affect as many as one million children. The food and nutrition crisis resulting from a severe drought, threatens the survival of an entire generation of children. Those children in eight countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal - are at risk of severe acute malnutrition. Sparse rainfall, poor harvests and rising food prices have left many vulnerable and weak, seeking medical attention. Sahel is one of the poorest regions in the world where children already face daunting odds of survival. The current crisis makes their survival even more tenuous. Associated Press photographer, Ben Curtis, documented the conditions in the region.
A woman carries her child amidst dusty winds in the desert near Mondo, a village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 19, 2012. UNICEF estimates that 127,000 children under the age of 5 in Chad's Sahel belt will require lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year, with an estimated 1 million expected throughout the wider Sahel region of West and Central Africa in the countries of Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Mauritania.
A donkey lies partially covered by the wind-swept sand in an area of desert where villagers take dead animals to avoid the smell and potential for the spread of disease, near the village of Dala in the Sahel belt of Chad. Mothers with hungry and malnourished children are flocking to feeding sites and clinics in the Chadian desert by any means they can and where it is sometimes too late to save their babies' lives. Health and U.N. officials warn that more children will die if international humanitarian assistance is not increased.
Zara Mahamat, suffering from malnutrition, diarrhea and fever, receives treatment through a nasal feeding tube accompanied by her mother, in an intensive care tent at the hospital in N'Gouri, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad. Mothers with hungry and malnourished children are flocking to feeding sites and clinics in the Chadian desert by any means they can. It is sometimes too late to save their babies' lives, however. Health and U.N. officials warn that more children will die if international humanitarian assistance is not increased.
Halime Moussa, 3, receives treatment via a nasal feeding tube. His hands are bandaged to prevent him from removing the tube. He is being treated at the therapeutic nutrition ward of the town's hospital. His mother, Kaltouma Abakar, travelled 70km to reach the center, in Mao, capital of the Kanem region of Chad.
A child is weighed as other mothers and children wait their turn, at a walk-in feeding center in Mao, April 17, 2012.
A mother and her child walk to get water, pumped by hand from a well in Mondo, April 19, 2012. UNICEF estimates that 127,000 children under 5 years of age, in Chad's Sahel belt will require lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year.
Halime Ali, 13 months old, lies in the plastic bucket of a weighing scale while being checked for signs of malnutrition at a walk-in feeding center in Dibinindji, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 18, 2012.
Two Chadian boys sit on the sand together in Tchyllah, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 19, 2012.
A woman carries her child amidst dusty winds in the desert near Mondo, a village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 19, 2012. UNICEF estimates that 127,000 children under the age of 5 in Chad's Sahel belt will require lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year, with an estimated 1 million expected throughout the wider Sahel region of West and Central Africa in the countries of Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Mauritania.
A donkey lies partially covered by the wind-swept sand in an area of desert where villagers take dead animals to avoid the smell and potential for the spread of disease, near the village of Dala in the Sahel belt of Chad. Mothers with hungry and malnourished children are flocking to feeding sites and clinics in the Chadian desert by any means they can and where it is sometimes too late to save their babies' lives. Health and U.N. officials warn that more children will die if international humanitarian assistance is not increased.
Zara Mahamat, suffering from malnutrition, diarrhea and fever, receives treatment through a nasal feeding tube accompanied by her mother, in an intensive care tent at the hospital in N'Gouri, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad. Mothers with hungry and malnourished children are flocking to feeding sites and clinics in the Chadian desert by any means they can. It is sometimes too late to save their babies' lives, however. Health and U.N. officials warn that more children will die if international humanitarian assistance is not increased.
Halime Moussa, 3, receives treatment via a nasal feeding tube. His hands are bandaged to prevent him from removing the tube. He is being treated at the therapeutic nutrition ward of the town's hospital. His mother, Kaltouma Abakar, travelled 70km to reach the center, in Mao, capital of the Kanem region of Chad.
A child is weighed as other mothers and children wait their turn, at a walk-in feeding center in Mao, April 17, 2012.
A mother and her child walk to get water, pumped by hand from a well in Mondo, April 19, 2012. UNICEF estimates that 127,000 children under 5 years of age, in Chad's Sahel belt will require lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year.
Halime Ali, 13 months old, lies in the plastic bucket of a weighing scale while being checked for signs of malnutrition at a walk-in feeding center in Dibinindji, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 18, 2012.
Two Chadian boys sit on the sand together in Tchyllah, a desert village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 19, 2012.
