According to the World Food Programme (WFP) there are 43 million Africans who rely on food aid and 35 million of them are on the verge of famine. Currently there are 23 African countries that are affected in one way or another by food shortages. These shortages can be explained by weather conditions or biological circumstances on the one hand, but there are also other reasons: aids, political unrest, foreign debt and poverty. Caritas International conducts emergency aid and development programmes all over the African continent, some of which are the organisation’s own programmes while others were initiated by the Caritas network. Caritas International also has different development project in Africa with the primary objective of battling food insecurity.