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African
Nation Niger Faces Famine |
Posted:
08.01.05
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Efforts to save the lives of nearly 1 million starving children
in the West African nation of Niger are under way, with international
relief agencies rushing to distribute food.
Printer-friendly versions: PDF
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Media images over the last few weeks of Niger's emaciated children
-- an estimated 150,000 of them near death -- have roused foreign
governments to pledge millions of dollars.
 The
United Nations and other organizations will use the money to deliver
necessary supplies such as flour, oil, rice, peas and enriched
biscuits.
Amidou Abou couldn't wait any longer. He sold the last of his
sheep herd for $13 to feed his family. Before the crisis, he would
have netted $90.
"My child has been hospitalized at the nutritional center.
What do you want me to do?" he told an Associated Press reporter.
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Food shortages
in West Africa |
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A severe drought and a rare invasion of locusts wiped out much
of Niger's food crop last year and led to the start of a famine
affecting an estimated 3.6 million people in the mostly desert
country of 11.3 million people.
Niger is one of the world's poorest countries.
The famine worsened an already serious situation, in which one
in four children under the age of 5 dies each year of hunger and
poverty.
Niger's neighbors are also facing a crisis. In Mali, an estimated
1.1 million people are in need of food. About 5,000 children are
suffering from malnutrition, and death rates among young children
have hit record highs, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA.
 About
500,000 people in Burkina Faso, Niger's southwestern neighbor,
also need food. Thousands of families have left their homes in
search of something to eat.
Mauritania, next door to Mali, also is experiencing food shortages
due to drought.
All three countries sit along the semi-arid strip of land south
of the Sahara and north of the Sudan region known as the Sahel.
The region receives the same amount of rain as the driest parts
of the United States - around 6 to 20 inches of rainfall a year.
The region's inhabitants, mostly nomadic farmers and cattle herders,
survive by taking their herds north during the driest season and
south during the rainy season.
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Calls for
aid |
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While help has begun pouring into the region, some aid workers
and government officials in Niger claim hundreds of lives could
have been saved if action was taken sooner.
Calls for emergency assistance from the government nine months
ago and U.N. appeals for aid to West Africa, were largely ignored
before the media picked up on the story, U.N. officials have said.
 Of
the $196 million the United Nations requested for West Africa
for 2005, the organization received only 39 percent of the funds,
Kristen Knutson, an OCHA spokeswoman, told the Associated Press.
Now, refugee camps around Niger are brimming with starving people.
Agencies, such as Doctors Without Borders and the World Food
Program, warn that the upcoming rainy season could bring diseases
like malaria and pneumonia.
Last week, the United Nations said it would begin airlifting
44 tons of emergency food to Niger.
Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, has already given donated
1,000 tons of grain to its neighbor.
The United States has pledged about $6 million to the famine.
--
Compiled by Kristina Nwazota for NewsHour Extra
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