Madar (Dakar) - The ending 2026 agro-pastoral season "is worrying in terms of food and fodder", the executive secretary of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), Dr Abdoulaye Mouhamadou, warned in Dakar on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, calling for stronger regional mechanisms to prevent and respond to crises, the Senegalese news agency APS reported.
He was speaking at the third steering committee meeting on revising the regional food security storage strategy, a joint effort by ECOWAS, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and CILSS, of which Mauritania is a member state.
He said climate, security and food crises in West Africa and the Sahel were weakening livelihoods, disrupting trade and reducing households' access to adequate food. "The regional food security reserve is a strategic link in the system for preventing and managing food, nutrition and pastoral crises," he said.
The revision aims to better coordinate the different levels of storage, link them to national response plans and strengthen timely intervention. ECOWAS commissioner for economic affairs and agriculture Dehpué Yenpea Zuo stressed the need to adapt regional instruments to countries' needs and improve their effectiveness and funding.
The CILSS chief said emergency responses should be part of a lasting approach based on agricultural development and protecting livelihoods, and called for greater involvement of farmers and herders, notably through local and regional purchases and easier cross-border trade.
