United Nations agencies have urged greater international support to stave off severe food insecurity in Africa’s western Sahel; a region reeling from the effects of conflict and now threatened by drought and rising hunger.
In normal weather conditions, supplies would last beyond June, into September.
“Those are telling signs of a looming disaster that the world cannot continue to ignore.” It is feared the region’s children will be the worst affected, with more than 1.6 million at risk of severe acute malnutrition this year – representing a 50 per cent increase compared with the last major nutrition crisis in the Sahel, in 2012.
Marie-Pierre Poirier, the Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that it was “tragic that the same mothers are coming back to the clinics year after year with their children for treatment.” It is tragic that the same mothers are coming back to the clinics year after year with their children for treatment of severe acute malnutrition — UNICEF official Marie-Pierre Poirier This year, the numbers have been the worst, she added.
Strengthening resilience is also the top priority for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“What will help stabilize the Sahel is support for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, during this lean season and in the future, to cope with shocks that include climate change and conflicts,” said Coumba Sow, the Sub-Regional Coordinator for Resilience for FAO across the region.
They have also prepared longer-term interventions, including improving access to local food resources as well as strengthening health and social services to allow communities and countries at large, to prevent and deal with similar shocks in the future.
Implementing these programmes however, relies on sufficient funding.
Fully funded, the WFP response (requiring $284 million) will provide food and nutrition to some 3.5 million people.
UNICEF’s response ($264 million) will protect almost 1 million children from severe acute malnutrition and provide them access to water and sanitation facilities and education until the end of the year.

Recent rains provided sufficient relief from the drought in 15 South Carolina counties.
For the drier counties, although the rain was certainly welcome, it was not adequate to completely remove the drought declaration.
“Wildfire activity has been above average for the month of April, exceeding the 10-year average,” said S.C. Forestry Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones.
We have also not heard of any significant issues related to drought impacts on trees that were planted over the winter.” South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Senior Hydrologist Scott Harder added that improved streamflow conditions in the Upstate supported the removal of incipient drought for the counties of York, Chester, Union, Fairfield, Laurens, Newberry and Greenwood, as well as the Pee Dee region counties.
We will continue to monitor Saluda, Lexington and Richland counties, as they currently remain in an incipient drought status.” According to Athena Strickland, Technical Services Manager for Domtar Paper and Northeast Drought Committee Member, “the Northeast region is looking good… We have received some much-needed rainfall recently and have an outlook of more to come in the near future.
“Orangeburg, Berkeley and Charleston counties remained in normal status, due to the recent rainfall.
Bamberg, Colleton and Dorchester Counties remained in incipient status due to a lesser amount of rain being received in those areas.
All of the local municipal water suppliers continue to have an abundant supply of water.
The agriculture and silviculture communities in the southern region have adequate moisture but remain cautious as the growing season approaches.” West Drought Committee Member Pickens Williams summarized the status of his area as follows: “The West Drought Management Area along the Savannah River from Abbeville County down to Hampton County remain in incipient drought status.
The winter and early spring rainfalls were below normal for our region, and the recent one- to two-inch rains earlier this week provided only temporary relief.

Chapman Lake, located in the middle of Tetrahedron Provincial Park, is at the centre of a dispute over the future of the park and the role it should have in the region’s water supply.
(Sunshine Coast Region District) What is the purpose of a provincial park?
Janyk is one of a number of people fighting a plan by the Sunshine Coast Regional District to install a new pipeline to draw more water from a lake in the centre of the park.
Drought triggered changes Chapman Lake has been the primary water source for the region since long before the provincial park was established in 1995.
But two droughts in the summer of 2015 and 2017 pushed the region into Stage 4 water restrictions, forcing the district to reassess its water supply, including how much water it draws out of Chapman Lake.
"If they do that, its going to fundamentally ruin the park, and its not going to solve the long-term problem for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, which requires more and more water," said Janyk.
Protecting the local water supply But others like SCRD Director Mark Lebbell say Chapman Lake was always intended to be the main water source for the region, even before the park was created in 1995 by the NDP.
At the time, many looked on the creation of the park as the best way to protect the watershed from logging.
"There are alternatives that the regional district can pursue," said Janyk.
An open house is not a proper process for the significance of what is being proposed here."

Dry, windy conditions led to the further intensification of drought across the state for the week ending April 29, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Mountain Regional Field Office, New Mexico.
The United States Drought Monitor released on April 26 showed that exceptional drought (D4) had expanded to cover 9.1 percent of the state.
Conditions rated abnormally dry or worse continued to blanket 99.9 percent of New Mexico.
Overall, topsoil moisture levels were reported as 10 percent adequate to surplus, compared with 10 percent last week, 49 percent last year, and a 5-year average of 32 percent.
Spring fieldwork was ongoing, with row crops being planted as conditions allowed.
Precipitation was recorded at 9 out of 44 reporting weather stations.
The largest moisture accumulation was reported at Navajo Whiskey Creek, where 0.10 inch fell.
Freeze damage in all crops was reported as 5 percent light and 1 percent moderate, compared with 10 percent light and 1 percent moderate last week.
There was no hail damage reported.
Wind damage in all crops was reported as 30 percent light, 20 percent moderate, and 3 percent severe, compared with 27 percent light, 15 percent moderate, and 2 percent severe last week.

The next two weeks might be some of the best spring weather of the year.
Scattered showers and T-Storms roam southern Minnesota into Wednesday morning.
5:48pm CDT #SPC_Watch WW 60 SEVERE TSTM IA MN WI 012245Z – 020700Z, #iawx #mnwx #wiwx, https://t.co/JSh669bXIT pic.twitter.com/usnT93qY1u — NWS SPC (@NWSSPC) May 1, 2018 Farther north toward the Twin Cities, there is a marginal risk one or two storms could approach severe limits (1″ diameter hail, 58 mph winds) overnight.
Our weather pattern is trending dry overall for the next two weeks.
But I have a hunch we may be hearing the D-word (drought) tossed around soon.
Most of Minnesota will trend dry the next few days.
Areas to the south will see rain the next few days, while areas to the north remain dry #mnwx #wiwx pic.twitter.com/q9dcn27B50 — NWS Twin Cities (@NWSTwinCities) May 1, 2018 NOAA’s 7-day rainfall outlook suggest heavy rains into Iowa, southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, but very little across Minnesota and the Dakotas.
NOAA’s GFS model 16-day precip outlook suggests less than an inch of rain in the next 16 days.
Of course this can change with one good local thunderstorm, but if it verifies things are going to get dry around parts of Minnesota in the next two weeks.
Numbers courtesy of the Twin Cities NWS.

In a recent paper, we reconstructed 800 years of seasonal rainfall patterns across the Australian continent.
Our new records show that parts of Northern Australia are wetter than ever before, and that major droughts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in southern Australia are likely without precedent over the past 400 years.
Read more: Antarctic ice shows Australia’s drought and flood risk is worse than thought This new knowledge gives us a clearer understanding of how droughts and flooding rains may be changing in the context of a rapidly warming world.
Historical records provide rough estimates of the extent and intensity of droughts in parts of Australia since the late 1700s.
Observational weather records provide more detailed descriptions of climatic variability.
Although the historical and observational records provide a wealth of information about the frequency of wet and dry extremes, they provide only part of the picture.
This allows us to place recent observations of rainfall variability into a much longer context across the entire continent for the first time.
For example, the Millennium Drought was larger in area and longer than any other drought in southern Australia over the last 400 years.
This spatial variability has also recently been demonstrated for eastern Australia.
Our multi-century rainfall reconstruction complements the recent Climate Change in Australia report on future climate.

Luanda — Sixty-five million euros was invested this year in implementing an agricultural project and strengthening institutional capacities, linked to food security and drought control in the provinces most affected by this phenomenon.
The project called "Strengthening Resilience, Food Security and Nutrition" (Fresan) will be implemented in the provinces of Cunene, Namibe and Huíla, thus this is a result of an agreement between the European Union and the Angolan Government that will be extend until 2022.
The European Union-funded programme is focuses on combating drought, livestock farming, production of cereals, vegetable and other agricultural products.
This information was released to ANGOP on Monday by the agricultural project manager of the European Union delegation, Danilo Barbero, who explained that the implementation of the food security programme aims to increase resilience in drought-affected communities.
"When there is a drought, we cannot shake hands, but we need to do something to support communities through better use of water," said the manager.
For the materialization of this programme, an Angolan technical team and the Portuguese cooperation agency for agriculture, environment and risk prevention and natural disasters will start a project soon in the indicated regions.
The six-month start-up phase will serve to identify the communities where the field school will be set up and other revenue-generating activities and to benefit communities in revenue collection.
The Angolan government has invested over USD 1.5 million in agricultural projects and high values in agribusiness projects, but the results are not yet very significant, according to engineer Fernando Macedo.

The increase in fires and summer drought brought on by climate change is increasingly altering the type of tree species and the carbon sequestration of forest landscapes, particularly in the Klamath region of the United States.
An increase in the number of wildfires and summer droughts caused by climate change is drastically changing a globally unique bio-region of northern California and southwestern Oregon, according to new research funded by the National Science Foundation and published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
Because of its unique geological features, the rugged mountains of the Klamath harbors a rich biodiversity, with several distinct plant communities, including temperate rain forests, moist inland forests, oak forests and savannas, high elevation forests, and alpine grasslands.
This is because as plants begin to recover from a fire, the iconic conifers must compete with fast-growing shrubs and other species that are more fire-resistant.
The research method used in the study To study the dynamics of Klamath forest landscape, Thompson and his colleagues from the Harvard Forest, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and Portland State University simulated the next 100 years of forest dynamics in the Klamath according to five potential climate futures, reports ZME Science.
The projected shifts ranged from conservative to extreme, in warming and seasonal precipitation.
The models agree that it will be warmer, but some predict wetter and some drier.
Not surprisingly, the drier climate scenarios were associated with the largest losses of conifer forests,” Thompson told ZME Science.
Because climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires, fast-growing shrubs will take over the forests – and because they can regenerate quickly when subjected to high-intensity wildfires, they will squeeze out the conifers.
So, the replacement of old conifer forests with shrubs will mean much more carbon in the atmosphere.

At Hastinapura, on the fringes of the Chikkamagaluru constituency, among the various serrated edges that mark out the peaks of the Western Ghats, the tall mobile tower on the Bababudangiri hill is the most visible.
Since 2002, Paramesh Naik, a marginal farmer, had participated in many rallies that marched up the hill demanding that the syncretic Sree Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah at the peak be declared a Hindu temple.
This year, however, as an estimated 20,000 people gathered there for the celebration of Datta Jayanti, which was started by Sangh affiliates in early 2000s, Mr. Naik stayed in his village, grappling with the harsh realities of a three-year drought.
At the shrine, after a series of provocative speeches, a mob broke the tombstones at the dargah.
For many like Mr. Naik, who has now abandoned his areca cultivation, drought has trumped Hindutva.
Drought and distress perhaps explain why the formerly communally sensitive district saw barely a whimper when in March, the State Cabinet — following Supreme Court directions — accepted a three-member committee report which recommended status quo.
The Shah Khadri (hereditary administrator) will be the administrator of the shrine and performer of rituals.
Wilting areca trees, vast expanses of dry lakes and barren, abandoned fields pockmark the area where drought was an infrequent visitor.
This has to spread among the people,” Mr. Ravi says.
“But Datta Peeta is not a movement for elections.

According to the OCS Mesonet, several rainfalls over a period of time are needed to eliminate the problem.
As of April 24, drought conditions were rated 35 percent extreme to exceptional, up 35 points from the previous year, and 20 percent exceptional drought, up 20 points from the previous year.
Statewide temperatures averaged in the high 50s.
There were 4.9 days suitable for fieldwork.
Winter wheat jointing reached 86 percent, down 10 points from the previous year and down 9 points from normal.
Rye jointing reached 89 percent, down 9 points from the previous year but up 1 point from normal.
Rye headed reached 37 percent, down 40 points from the previous year but up 4 points from normal.
Oats jointing reached 50 percent, down 16 points from the previous year and down 4 points from normal.
Sorghum planted reached 13 percent, down 9 points from the previous year and down 2 points from normal.
Soybeans planted reached 5 percent, down 5 points from the previous year and down 1 point from normal.