UN humanitarians said on Tuesday that the international community must not ignore growing food insecurity that is already affecting tens of millions of people across West Africa and the Sahel.

The alert comes as new data from the region indicated that almost 36 million people are expected to be acutely food insecure by the time next year’s lean season comes round.

This is usually in June, July and August, but it could start as early as March.

This represents an alarming 24 per cent increase on 2020, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) survey, which aid agencies use to gauge levels of need.