The World Food Programme on Monday said thousands in the Central Sahel will face even further destitution unless immediate access is granted to humanitarian organizations. The UN emergency food relief agency warned that disastrous levels of hunger could hit parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

A High-Level Ministerial Conference on the Central Sahel was to be held Tuesday in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Saudi Gazette reports that 7.4 million people in the Central Sahel region experience acute hunger. It adds that the number of internally displaced people has risen from 70,000 two years ago to 1.6 million today. The world’s mostly rapidly growing displacement crisis is currently taking place in Burkina Faso.

Chris Nikoi, WFP Regional Director for West Africa, said that “dreadful violence and conflict” in parts of northern Burkina Faso have left over ten thousand people there “one step short of famine”. He further stated that the world could not wait for men, women, and children to die, before taking action.

Desperately needed assistance to the most impoverished communities has become impossible to deliver due to them having become inaccessible, as aid organizations face threatening situations as the conflict intensifies. The Saudi Gazette reports that humanitarian workers are increasingly targeted by armed groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Tuesday’s conference is to focus on humanitarian as well as peace efforts.

Umm Muhammed Umar