If You See It, Maybe You Will Do Something To Stop It

Up to 150,000 Face

Starvation in Niger
Andrew Meldrum
The Guardian UK
Go to Original
Thursday 21 July 2005

Poor harvest and late aid response blamed for crisis.

Thousands of children are starving to death in Niger because the international community has been too slow to respond to the country's food crisis, UN officials and aid workers said yesterday.

They warned that the numbers dying could rise to 150,000 without urgent aid.

More than 25% of Niger's 12 million people are short of food and 20% of its children are thought to be suffering moderate to severe malnutrition.

Niger suffered a poor harvest of its staple grain, millet, as a result of poor rains and an infestation of locusts, and aid agencies warn that many thousands are so severely malnourished that even emergency food relief may be too late to save them.

They are urgently setting up feeding centers across a country which is regarded as the second poorest in the world. The Niger government says its effort to feed about 1.3 million people has been hampered by the limited response to its appeal last month for €35m (£25m) to buy food.

"There is late and there is too late," said Toby Porter, emergencies director of Save the Children UK. "The international community has been late to respond. We are now racing so that our relief is not too late for Niger's children."

He added: "The United Nations made a flash appeal in May for $18m [£10m]. That's small change in international aid terms, but there was little response.

"It is only in the past few days, once television cameras brought the images of starving children into people's homes, that proper funding has come in." Continues...