NGO Hails African Footballers’ Fight Against Hunger

Food Security Policy Adviser in West Africa of Oxfam, an International humanitarian agency, Al Hassan Cisse, has commended some African footballers’ efforts in the support against hunger on the African continent.

The gesture which coincided with the just concluded African Cup of Nations tournament has stars including Moumouni Dagano from Burkina Faso, Demba Ba from Senegal, Seydou Keita from Mali and Lawali Idrissa from Niger who made individual inputs in their respective countries in concerted efforts with Oxfam’s fight against hunger in their own countries.

The Oxfam official said with estimates of people requiring assistance over the next six months increasing to over eleven million and the estimate of resources required to provide that assistance to  £700 million pounds, Oxfam warned that international assistance needed to be redoubled.

He said the potential scale of the looming crisis in some countries African has become clear and the time to mobilize resources was now in order to protect the lives and livelihoods of poor families in the regions as well as protect children from malnutrition.

He warned that every month delayed would be disastrous for most valuerable communities which could affect cost of response from donors and welcomed the efforts of such donors like the African footballers woes donations came early.

He revealed that recently, the European Commission increased its humanitarian aid to the regions to the tune of £123.5 million pounds with several supports from Germany, Australia, France and the UK.

Reports say that as the African Cup of Nations closed, and the food situation worsen in the African regions, more African footballers were expected to speak out on the hunger issue.

According to Demba Ba, Senegal and Newcastle United football Star.

“It is our duty to commit ourselves to ensuring that hunger is not an option in the 21st century. All of us have to act with determination and courage to stand up for our brothers and sisters across the Sahel and elsewhere”.

It was believed that the looming food crisis was primarily due to low rainfall which witnessed a 25 per cent drop in cereal production in the last harvest with a rise in food prices of up to 90 percent.

The region is a region prone to vulnerable shocks such as drought and Oxfam has also called for a longer term investment in order to boosts the resilience so that the communities would be able to cope with the coming bad years in order to prevent future crisis.