The effects of drought in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa have prompted the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to issue a call for additional financial support in order to help 859,000 children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. UNICEF currently only has half of the $50 million in funds necessary to carry out potentially life saving operations that will help feed children during this time of need.
Children are suffering from malnutrition all over the Sahel, a belt of savanna and grasslands south of the Sahara desert that is prone to droughts that thwart crop growth in the planting season, leaving less to reap come harvest time. Families in Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger have become food insecure, unable to prevent children from becoming acutely malnourished.
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