FAO Asks Oil Exporters to Establish Fund for Sahel Food Crisis

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations asked oil-exporting countries to set up a fund to help manage a food crisis in Africa’s Sahel, said Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva.

“We are very concerned about the Sahel because there are already many conflicts in the region,” he said today at a conference in Brazzaville, the capital of Republic of Congo, which he said has given “rigorous support” for the fund plan.

More than 5 million people in Niger are facing food insecurity, along with 3 million in Mali and 1.5 million in Burkina Faso, according to the FAO.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Mbakou in Brazzaville via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net