United Nations aid chiefs meeting in Rome on Wednesday said the situation at the drought-stricken Sahel region of West Africa is “URGENT” and needed $725 million (552 million euros) this year for action.

“Around 725 million dollars is what is assessed to be needed this year,” Helen Clark, head of the aid agency UNDP, said after the meeting, which also included the EU’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva.

In a joint statement, the UN and EU aid chiefs said there should be “an urgent scale-up” in relief efforts because of the combined effect of drought, high food prices, displacement and conflict in the region. “The time for humanitarian action in the Sahel is now,” he said.

With the announcement of the European Commission that it was donating 30 million euros to support feeding programs for one million children under the age of two and half a million pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers, I think it is the right time to engage the social media folks.

We have seen the impact of social media on “urgent issues” in recent years such as the FWD campaign of the USAID; the use of twitter and facebook for Haiti earthquake; social media for the Horn of Africa, among others. So far, little has been done for the drought in West Africa apart from the efforts by Africans Act 4 Africa where African artists and activists are calling for social media action to end the continent’s famines.

Let’s use the social media to create the awareness of the looming famine and to raise support for the drought victims.

Read the full news update from Rome here.