Famine threat in Africa's Sahel eases - for now

"The food shortfalls meant farmers had to use depleted reserve cereal stocks to feed their livestock and will now need more than just one good harvest to replenish these stocks, said Jean Francois Caremel of the Action Against Hunger charity in Chad. Caremel added that many poor families had borrowed heavily to survive the drought. A rich cereal harvest will now lead to lower cereal prices, meaning they will need to sell more crops to make enough money to repay the debts. 'At the end of the day they would be short of food again, although the harvest could be good,' Caremel said by telephone from the Chadian capital N'Djamena."