Children dying in Chad as Sahel crisis bites

"Children in western Chad have started dying from malnutrition as a major hunger crisis threatening West Africa begins to take hold, an international charity has warned. Child malnutrition rates have soared in the region of Kanem, which is now in the grip of a full blown emergency, Action Contre La Faim (ACF) said...More than 2,000 children in Kanem were admitted to nutrition treatment centres in February alone, triple the number treated in December, according to ACF. 'For the people in Kanem the emergency is already here,' ACF spokeswoman Lucile Grosjean said...ACF is urging donors to respond now to appeals by Chad’s government and aid groups for funds to run food distribution and nutrition programmes...'Chad is quite a forgotten country when it comes to international attention about the Sahel food crisis,' Grosjean said. 'People speak a lot about Mali and Niger when it is about hunger and only remember Chad in terms of refugees from Darfur who are in the east of the country,' she added."