Child malnutrition in the West African country of Niger has reached critical levels and urgent action is needed to stop the situation getting worse in the lean months before the next harvest, the U.N.‘s food agency said.

The World Food Programme conducted surveys in Niger’s second city of Zinder and in nearby Maradi and by extrapolating the results found that as many as 135,000 children in the eastern region might be malnourished.

A nationwide application of the figures suggested 350,000 children under five could be going hungry in the landlocked arid country where annual food shortages have been made worse by last year’s severe drought and locust invasion.

“The situation is critical ... We need to act urgently to prevent the situation deteriorating any further,” WFP’s country director Gian Carlo Cirri said in a statement on Thursday.

“These (survey) results would normally indicate a people living in a war zone and yet we have not even entered the ‘hunger season’, the period each year leading up to the harvest when food is generally scarce,” Cirri said.

The next harvest is due at the end of the rainy season in September and October.

A quarter of the 12 million people living in Niger are facing food shortages this year. Tax increases on staple goods have helped push prices even higher for stretched consumers.

On Tuesday, the government agreed to drop a tax on flour and milk after huge street protests against the price hikes in a country where average annual income is just $200 and people can expect to live just 46 years.

One in four children die in Niger before they reach five.

WFP said the figures from the eastern cities were in line with soaring admission numbers at a Medecins Sans Frontieres feeding centre in the Maradi region. The surveys also found that 61 percent of children in the east suffered from stunted growth.

WFP said the food shortages were forcing people to leave the country and look for work in cities. Others moved their livestock into agricultural areas, putting crops at risk. Still more tried to sell their animals, driving livestock prices down.

The U.N. body also found evidence of excessive felling of trees to make charcoal - a sign of people trying to raise cash.

WFP said it had a shortfall of $2.5 million for its Niger emergency programme to fight the food shortages.