UN: 18 Million Facing Severe Hunger in West Africa's Sahel

A woman milks her goats in Malamawa village, Zinder Region, Niger.
A woman milks her goats in Malamawa village, Zinder Region, Niger.
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UN: 18 Million Facing Severe Hunger in West Africa's Sahel

A woman milks her goats in Malamawa village, Zinder Region, Niger.
A woman milks her goats in Malamawa village, Zinder Region, Niger.

The UN is warning that 18 million people in Africa’s Sahel region face severe hunger in the next three months, citing the impacts of Russia's war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, climate-induced shocks and rising costs.

The hunger crisis may press increased numbers of people to migrate out of the affected areas, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday.

The largest number of people are at risk of severe hunger across the region since 2014, and four countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger — are facing “alarming levels,” with nearly 1.7 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity there, according to the UN agency.

Parts of the Sahel region, a vast territory stretching across the south of the Sahara Desert, have faced their worst agricultural production in more than a decade, and food shortages could worsen as the lean season arrives in late summer, Tomson Phiri, spokesman for the UN’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Program, said.

“The situation is definitely going to get worse before it gets better,” he told reporters in Geneva. “We may see more people trying to make ends meet by migrating: It’s a very, very likely possibility.”

Many people from the region are among migrants who seek to travel north to Europe in hopes of economic opportunity, more stability and safety, The Associated Press reported.

“A combination of violence, insecurity, deep poverty and record-high food prices is exacerbating malnutrition and driving millions to the fringes of survival,” Martin Griffiths, the head of OCHA, said in a statement.

“The recent spike in food prices driven by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is threatening to turn a food security crisis into a humanitarian disaster,” he said. Those two countries are key producers of wheat, barley and other agricultural products, and the conflict has almost entirely halted exports through the Black Sea.

Griffiths' office is releasing $30 million from its emergency relief fund for the four African countries.

Humanitarian groups earlier this year launched appeals seeking $3.8 billion in aid for the region in 2022, but they remain only 12% funded, OCHA said.



Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Says Armed Struggle with Türkiye Over

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
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Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Says Armed Struggle with Türkiye Over

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a poster of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a spring festival of Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar/File Photo

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday to declare the group's armed struggle against Türkiye over and called for a full transition to democratic politics.

In the recording, dated June and released by Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, Ocalan urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.

"The phase of armed struggle has ended. This is not a loss, but a historic gain," he said. "The armed struggle stage must now be voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law."

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.

Since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984 – originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state – the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a heavy economic burden and fueled deep social and political divisions.

The video marks a rare and potentially pivotal moment in the long-running conflict, offering what could be President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most significant opportunity yet to seal a political settlement to the Kurdish issue, should his government choose to respond, Reuters reported.

It also comes before PKK militants begin handing over their weapons in groups in northern Iraq's Sulaymaniyah on Friday, in a major step in the process.

Seated in a beige polo shirt with a glass of water on the table in front of him, Ocalan appeared to read from a transcript in the seven-minute video – the first public footage or audio of him since his arrest in 1999. Six other jailed PKK members sat beside him, all looking directly at the camera.

He said the PKK, which has been based in northern Iraq's mountainous regions in recent years, had ended its separatist agenda.

"The main objective has been achieved – existence has been acknowledged. What remains would be excessive repetition and a dead end," he said.

Ocalan added that Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM Party, the third largest in parliament and which played a key role facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision, should work alongside other political parties to advance the peace process.

The PKK and DEM expect Ankara to address Kurdish political demands, potentially before weapons in Türkiye are handed over.

Ocalan's message came a day after Ibrahim Kalin, head of Türkiye's MIT intelligence agency, visited Baghdad for high-level meetings with Iraqi officials, the agency said. Kalin had earlier visited Erbil in northern Iraq as well.

Talks focused on strengthening border security and steps toward a "terror-free Türkiye," with the Iraqi government voicing full support for joint efforts to eliminate armed groups from the region.