Niger worse than Darfur - An aid worker's Niger diary

See Channel 4 News special report: Niger 'worse than Darfur'
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An aid worker's Niger diary: Arriving on the ground

Mark Snelling is a member of the British Red Cross Society's Emergency Response Unit in Niger. He has been keeping a diary for the BBC News website.

Excerpt from Niger diary I:

"Calls start pouring in from international media. Interviews range from the supportive to the slightly hostile.

'Why didn't the help get there sooner?' asks one journalist. There is no single easy answer.

One could say that government and UN strategies didn't work as well as they might have done; international donors were slow to respond despite aid agency warnings; it is also the case that it was hard to assess that a chronically deficient food situation was turning acute."

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Via BBC - Aid reaches Niger relief centres:

Aid has begun reaching feeding centres for the 2.5m people estimated to be facing famine in Niger and distribution is due to begin in earnest next week.

Most supplies are being brought in overland but more than 40 metric tons of emergency UN food aid has arrived by air from Italy and more is due.

France, the former colonial power, is to triple food aid and UK charities have appealed for fresh donations.

Actual distribution of the aid is not due to start until next week.
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UK appeals for donations

From BBC News online 30 July 2005 Disaster group makes Niger appeal:

"Eleven of the UK's leading charities have launched an appeal to help more than two million people facing starvation in drought-hit Niger.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) raised GBP 300m in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami on Boxing Day.
Now its Niger Crisis Appeal is open for phone and online donations, with a TV and radio campaign to come next week.
DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said it was hoped the campaign could raise around GBP 10m pounds.

'We are a service for the British public to know how to get their concerns turned into action on the ground,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme."

Tags: Niger Africa