People in the Sahel region of West Africa are so hungry they are eating wild leaves, Tearfund has warned.

The Christian development agency says the region is edging towards famine, with around ten million people facing acute food shortages.

Nearly eight million people are affected in Niger alone – almost half the country’s population - while in neighbouring Chad, around two million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of thousands of people in Burkina Faso, Mali and northern Nigeria are also struggling to find enough food to eat.

Jo Khinmaung, Tearfund’s food security adviser, has just returned from Chad.

She said: “People are eating wild leaves, roots and tubers straight away, without soaking them in water for a few days because they are so desperately hungry, which is causing all manner of health problems.”

The food shortages have been brought on by a dramatic increase in the price of grain, a knock on effect from bad harvests over several years. The shortages have been made more acute by the devaluation of cattle, a vital possession for many families in the Sahel, and floods in Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso, which have washed away crops.

Tearfund said around 20 per cent of children under the age of five are acutely malnourished in parts of Chad. In Niger, the figure is 17 per cent, placing both countries over the emergency threshold.

“The youngest children are particularly affected, as evidenced by a steep rise in acute malnutrition across the region. This has long term consequences for children’s health as it can stunt their growth,” said Khinmaung.

She added, “Much of the livestock, on which people depend, have died and carcasses can be seen piled up in the worst affected regions.

“Families would normally trade their cattle for food – but those that remain are so weak they are not worth enough. This means families have no money, and many people are eating just one meal a day.”

Khinmaung said warnings of an imminent food crisis in the region were largely ignored when they were first sounded last November and that funding from international donors had so far been “slow and insufficient”.

“With more attention and funding, this crisis could and should have been prevented,” she said.

“What’s happening right now in the Sahel is a food crisis that is twice as catastrophic as that see in Niger in 2005. The international community seems to be repeating the same mistakes it made then, by responding with too little and too late.

“Additional resources are needed urgently, particularly for Niger and Chad, to respond to the food crisis, exacerbated by the recent flooding.

“Over the next year, a costly recovery effort will be required to restore people's health and livelihoods.”

Tearfund’s local partners are distributing food to the worst affected people and providing seeds for new crops.