Shadow International Development Secretary Ivan Lewis MP writes for the Huffington Post on his recent trip to Chad with Oxfam and the urgent need for humanitarian support to stop the food crisis that is effecting the Sahel region in West Africa – 13 million people face food shortages this year that will leave them struggling to get by until the next harvest in September.

Save the Children and Oxfam’s report ‘A Dangerous Delay’ made very clear what the cost of acting too late in Chad and West Africa will be, both in terms of the immediate loss of life but also the damage to longer term resilience.

The UK Government has already committed some money but it should urgently clarify the level of humanitarian investment it intends to make in the Sahel region, and back proposals for donors to urgently come together at a conference to commit to more life-saving support. Any further delay would suggest lessons have not been learnt from the past.

You can read the article here and take action with Oxfam here.

Louki Abdraman is a pastoralist from Bahr el Ghazal in Chad. He lost 21 camels during the last dry season. The water quality in many wells in the area is very poor, causing mouth ulcers and intestinal problems for many herders' camels. Oxfam is renovating wells in the region to help provide a source of safe, clean water. Photo: Andy Hall