UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 11 million people are still facing hunger in Africa’s Sahel region and urgent international aid is needed, a top U.N. humanitarian official said Tuesday.

Robert Piper, the U.N. Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, said the region is struggling to recover from a drought last year despite better projections for rain and harvest. He said climate change has unleashed crises like droughts more frequently on the Sahel, one of the poorest regions in the world, making it harder for farmers and villagers to recover. Last year’s drought came barely two years after the previous one, he said.