Climate change, rising food prices and population growth could combine to create a "perfect storm" crisis that wreaks havoc in west Africa, the head of the UN World Food Programme warned Thursday.
"I have seen in West African what havoc could be caused by the triple threat of climate change, rising food prices and and population growth," said Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director at the end of a four-day trip in the region.
"But I have also seen that there are solutions to help people adapt before it is too late," she added.
Climate change might mean that African countries that depended on rain for food production would harvest half of normal output in the next 12 years, said Sheeran.
At the same time the cost of food had increased by 50 percent over the last five years while the numbers of people without access to adequate food, had also risen.
"I call this in part the perfect storm," she told reporters.
West Africa, a region housing the world's greatest numbers of poverty stricken countries, was battling droughts, desertification and soaring prices of food, she added.
A region like Darfur, in southern Sudan, was supporting more people than it did a few decades ago, but with less land in production, she said.
Food prices in such regional countries as Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal have risen steeply this year, sparking tensions and deadly protests in places.
One person has been killed and several wounded in unrest over food prices crisis in Mauritania in recent days.
Sheeran said rising prices of grains on the international market had also meant the UN food agency could buy less than it would have budgeted for from its emergency aid contributions.
"The overall cost of WFP reaching a hungry person has gone up 50 percent in the past five years," said Sheeran.
She travelled to Mali's ancient and arid city of Timbuktu to assess how some communities there are tackling the impact of climate change, malnutrition and food insecurity.
The WFP estimates that some 1.5 million children or 13 percent of infants aged less than five years are in the Sahel region are "acutely" malnourished and that this constitutes "the highest proportion in any region in the world".
"Rain-dependent areas in Africa may produce half yield by the next 12 years," she said.
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