Inaction could bring mass starvation - WFP

A critical food shortage in Mauritania could lead to mass starvation unless preventive action is taken, according to Manuel Aranda da Silva, Regional Director for West Africa of the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP).

Some 750,000 of Mauritania's 2.7 million population are already affected by food shortages, with malnutrition now taking on alarming proportions, he told journalists on Thursday.

WFP started distributing 3,558 mt of wheat immediately after the government's declaration of a food emergency on 1 September, and this was expected to be completed by the end of September, the agency said in an emergency update on Friday.

Six regions: Hodh el Gharbi, Hodh el Chargui, Gorgol, Assaba, Tagant and Brakna, had been prioritised for this particular emergency operation, according to WFP.

However, only those people targeted to receive a wheat ration alone received emergency assistance because delayed donor response meant a full food basket was not available, it said.

WFP had received only 30 percent of the US $7.5 million funding it had requested for this emergency operation, it added.

Although pasture had come on in certain areas due to generous rainfall within the last two weeks, the rain-fed crop forecast "remains bleak" since the rains have come too late to reverse earlier drought damage.

"The rain-fed crop harvest is thus expected to fail," WFP stated.