Can aid do more harm than good? Who is spinning lies?

As noted here in previous posts, Niger's President Mamadou Tandja recently said his country was experiencing food shortages but not a famine. He accused aid agencies of exaggerating the food crisis for their own gain, raising serious issues about the way aid emergencies are handled.

American blogger Ethan Zuckerman points out that Henri Astier, a BBC correspondent, after talking to aid workers and experts on African aid, concluded, on balance, that President Tanja was probably right and quoted Professor William Easterly of NYU, as saying:

"There were localised food shortages this year - but they were not particularly acute, and are now easing.

What Niger is experiencing is not a sudden catastrophe, but chronic malnutrition that makes people vulnerable to rises in food prices."

Note, the report also quotes Professor Easterly as saying

"I think NGOs and rich country media do have an incentive to paint too simplistic and bleak a picture, as was the case in Niger's food crisis."

So, going by the above [which does not appear to touch on issues of African politics, land ownership rights, corruption, looting, violence and arms dealing] they seem to be saying:

food aid can distort 'functioning' markets, causing increased food insecurity in the long term;
regional solutions are needed to solve shortages that are not regional famine - so long as participating governments allow that trade to happen and international donors are able to help subsidise food to poorer areas when neccesary.

Note, Ethan praises the BBC saying it provides a terrific space where people from outside Africa can discover, if they listen, that their proposed solutions are often - strongly and validly - opposed by the people they're trying to help.

Unless I have missed something, there still seems to be no proper explanation of who was behind the surge in alarming media reports falsely accusing the world of turning its back on the starving people of Niger.

Who is doing the spin? And why are they getting away with such misleading news? My guess is we are left to believe aid agencies are the culprits. Propaganda is everywhere in the media. It's hard to believe much of what is published. There is so little investigative reporting, the media treats us like simpletons, feeding us by the minute with nuggets of junk.
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Irish Famine Memorial in Boston



Lest We Forget - Irish Famine Memorial in Boston
Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/79586895@N00/35958094/
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EU starving the developing world

Captain Marlow writes an insightful post on the EU starving the developing world. The post ends by saying:

"Sadly, everything has become a political issue and it is now impossible to trust reports on biotech, ecology, global warming. Numbers are manipulated to score political points, not to describe facts. The various activists seem to have played a self-defeating game here, since no one believes their alarmism anymore. The problem is that we all lose if we play this game instead of seriously looking for solutions."

Tags: Niger media aid famine crisis BBC Ethan Zuckerman Africa corruption lies donors spin propaganda Irish famine Boston

Niger president says there is no famine in Niger

What is really going in Niger? A BBC report today quotes Niger president Tanja as saying the current food crisis did not amount to a famine. Excerpt:

"We are experiencing like all the countries in the Sahel a food crisis due to the poor harvest and the locust attacks of 2004," Mr Tanja said.

"There is no famine in Niger," he said. "All those who are saying there is a famine either have political motivations or an economic interest.

He said if it were a real famine, shanty towns would form around the big towns, people would flee to neighbouring countries and street beggars would become more prevalent. Mr Tanja said this had not happened.

He said of the $45m promised to Niger in aid to help it deal with the food crisis, only $2.5m had been received by his government.

Also, the report says UN estimates that up to three million of Niger's 12 million population are suffering food shortages and 32,000 children with severe malnutrition are facing death without the necessary food and medical treatment.

Drought-Ravaged Niger: The 'Hunger Season' - Some weakened kids are 'letting themselves die

If only Newsweek and journalists like Eric Pape could read yesterday's post here below, they might report the fact that emergency aid does not come cheap when it is flown in at the last minute and by not coming in time, it costs countless lives and unimagineable suffering.

Newsweek August 15, 2005 features an article on Niger by Eric Pape. Note this excerpt:

At the latest count, 160,000 children in Niger were still suffering from serious malnutrition, and the lives of 32,000 were at immediate risk.

August is always a hard time in Niger. They call it the hunger season - when all the grain has been eaten and the autumn harvest has not begun. This year, food ran short months ago. Relief groups have been warning of an impending famine since last October, but their pleas went mostly unheard, especially after the South Asian tsunami in December. The delay's consequences were visible last week all around Maradi, a town of perhaps 150,000 inhabitants in the southern grasslands. Doctors and aid workers at the Center for Muslims of Africa couldn't handle all those seeking food for their children. Overflow crowds blocked the entrances, banging on the metal gates and howling to get in.

Also, Eric Pape writes:

Can Niger's next crisis be prevented? Nearly a quarter of the country's 12 million or so people have no money for food when crops fail. What they need, development experts say, are modern farm tools, irrigation equipment and seed to raise crops that are more productive, more diverse and drought-resistant. Emergency aid isn't cheap - and it never comes in time to save all the children.

Links and reports in Newsweek's sidebar:

An article in Newsweek Augusut 5, 2005 entitled "Crisis in Niger" says a perfect storm of negatives has led to a food crisis for millions. Excerpt:

It was a crisis-in-the-making that should have been averted, says Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff to the U.N. secretary-general. "What is happening was largely foreseeable as early as November," he says.

But despite appeals for donations then, the Asian tsunami and then the violence-plagued famine in the Darfur region of Sudan diverted attention from Niger.

"We do find it hard to deal with more than one crisis," says Malloch Brown.

In fact, it wasn't until British television aired reports last month that Niger was seen as a place in desperate need. Now, a crisis that could have been treated last year for about a dollar for each person in need will now cost eight times that much, and perhaps thousands of lives.

Also, the article quotes an aid worker:

In a country that's not at war and has no problems of access, people are hungry to the point of death because help simply didn't get there quickly.

"It's one of the easier countries [to help]. It's one of the countries that we shouldn't have let slip," says Dominic MacSorley, a veteran aid worker with Concern Worldwide.

Photo: A woman who received goods from a U.N. food program smiles as she walks home in the small town of Tsaki, Niger, on Tuesday. (Schalk Van Zuydam/AP courtesy Newsweek)

Related stories at Newsweek:

August 4, 2005 - Niger's children most at risk video: Of Niger's 12 million people, more than a fourth are at risk for extreme hunger and malnutrition, the United Nations says, with children especially vulnerable. Geraint Vincent of Britain's ITN reports.



August 8, 2005 "Africa: Crisis in Niger & Sudan" Dan Toole, Director, Office of Emergency Programs, UNICEF and Suliman Baldo, Program Director for Africa, International Crisis Group. Click here for audio clip, complete show, podcast.

August 5, 2005 (Associated Press) U.N. issues urgent appeal for Niger: Hunger caused by drought, locusts threatens hundreds of thousands.

July 30, 2005 (Reuters) Famine alert U.N. urges help for Niger: Health agency says dramatic increase in disease is possible.

Millions in Niger face starvation despite well-stocked markets, over half of nation survives on $1 per day

Blog Talk - Read here what bloggers are saying about this Newsweek article "Drought-Ravaged Niger: The 'Hunger Season'" right now.
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African musicians to raise money for Niger hunger

August 5, 2005 via MSNBC.com NIAMEY (Reuters):

A host of African musicians will stage a concert to raise money to fight a hunger crisis in Niger on Saturday, where an estimated 3.6 million people are facing food shortages, the culture ministry said.

Among the artists expected to perform in the main 30,000 capacity stadium in the capital Niamey will be Ivorian singers Dj Christy B, TV5 Fouka Fouka and Kilabongo and Nigerien groups Kaydan Gaskiya, Queen ZM and Kamikaze

Tags: Niger Newsweek Eric Pape journalists UN famine hunger season malnutrition Center for Muslims of Africa Maradi

Niger: Famine or no famine?

Note Famine or no famine? by British blogger Keith at under the acacias blog.

Keith says, in strict definition at least, President Tanja of Niger is correct. Please read the full post.

Tags: Niger

Now we know part of the answer to: Why starving in Niger?

Huge thanks to Tim Worstall for pointing out the following post by Aunty Marianne in Brussels, Belgium who, in her blog Tomato And Basil Sandwiches describes her occupation in 'government' as 'spending your money on humanitarian aid'.

Here is the post, copied in full, just incase Aunty Marianne decides for one reason or another to delete it, as it helps answer my question Why starving in Niger?

Saturday, August 06, 2005
OK, I'm fed up and others aren't

I am fed up to the back teeth with this whingeing about donors not reacting on the Niger famine. The EU have been actively looking for aid partners to spend 4.6 million euros since April. The reason why people are starving in Niger now, in August, is because some of those who asked for it to be made available for their feeding projects didn't get their proposals for actual projects in before early July. I also know for a fact that one of the organisations has a massive "emergency reserve" lying in wait for the famine almost certainly about to happen in a certain southern African country, a reserve that could have easily been tapped and replenished. They did not need to wait for donor funds to react.

We've had to release another 1.7m euros now that IMHO we wouldn't have had to, had they taken the first lot in time, because now, for example, therapeutic milk has to be airfreighted in instead of sea/road-shipped, and that's more expensive than the milk itself.

I am disgusted with the blamestorming around this famine, especially when the primary culprits are the ones pointing the finger, I'm disgusted at the waste of time and therefore money and all the additional suffering that it has caused to should-be-beneficiaries, and I wish the reputable media would check their facts better before blindly repeating press releases.

As always, this is just my personal view of things, and in no way necessarily represents the position of my employers.
posted by Aunty Marianne @ 10:59 AM
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[My first reaction to Aunty Marianne's post was disgust but not surprise because of what happened in Darfur last year when the UN and its World Food Programme admitted they acted too slowly and had to resort to costly air drops despite the long predicted rainy season. There is something terribly wrong with emergency aid responses and the way they are funded and reported.

A week or so ago I saw a top British politician (Hilary Benn I think) interviewed on UK television news. It may have been a Channel 4 News interview by Jon Snow who asked point blank why the long predicted food crisis in Niger was not responded to. The politician concluded by saying the "system" was not perfect and needed overhauling.

I say, once again, there is no accountability. Whoever is responsible for this scandal, not to mention the outrageous waste of precious public funds, is getting away with murder. Sorry for putting it so strongly but it is sickening to know the money for emergency food aid is there but the people entrusted by the public don't respond in time and then blame donors for not paying up. Of course, it then creates more publicity and an outcry which generates more funds before the food aid has even been delivered. Meanwhile, people starve to death and suffer unimagineable pain, grief and misery and the excuse all because the "system" needs overhauling. If heads rolled over this, the nameless "system" might get overhauled sooner.]

Previous posts:

Aug 2, 2005 - Could the Crisis in Niger Have Been Avoided?

Aug 2, 2005 - BBC's Hilary Andersson reporting on Niger

Tags: Niger West Africa drought famine Burkina Faso Mali Mauritania food crisis incompetence scandal mainstream+media EU therapeutic milk humanitarian aid New York Times BBC Hilary Andersson Hilary Benn Jon Snow Channel 4 Darfur

British aid flight reaches Niger - Hundreds of thousands of children could die in the famine

Today, BBC NEWS UK confirms a flight carrying British aid has arrived in Niger, west Africa, where millions face starvation after drought and a plague of locusts. Oxfam's Natasha Kafoworola Quist is quoted as saying families are feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them alive says. Excerpt from the report:

A British Red Cross team will distribute food, seeds, medical equipment and other essential items.

The Red Cross said up to 2.5m people urgently needed food, and one in 10 children could die unless helped.

It is trying to raise £8m worldwide. The UK government has announced a total contribution of £3m.

Miranda Bradley, part of the Red Cross team, said the crisis could be the worst famine in Africa for more than a decade.

Team leader Peter Pierce said: "Our main function will be to receive, store and forward on all the relief items that will be arriving.

"It's difficult to know what to expect and we will undoubtedly face challenges but it is vital that we transport everything off the planes and to people in need as fast as possible."

The charity launched an appeal after the drought and plague of locusts left eight million facing famine in Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.

The Red Cross appeal, launched on Friday, aims to raise £8m globally, with £500,000 coming from Britain.

They will transport vehicles and technical equipment so that they can distribute aid once it arrives.

Ms Bradley, 31, said the logistics of taking food across Niger could be difficult because it is the wet season.

"We are there to set up the tracking and communication systems so we can distribute the aid, which will mainly be food around the country," she said.

Oxfam has also launched a £1.4m appeal to help 130,000 people in Niger with a food voucher scheme.

Natasha Kafoworola Quist, the charity's regional director for West Africa, said the lack of food had pushed prices beyond the means of most families.

"Families are feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them alive," she said.

On Saturday the United Nations' relief chief said aid had finally begun to arrive in Niger, but only after graphic pictures of starving children were broadcast last week.

Appeals in November, March and May had failed to generate enough aid, Jan Egeland said.

He added: "It took the images of children dying to make the world wake up. We should not have had so many children dying in Niger."

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said £1.6m was donated last week, bringing the total to $2.2m.

The amount is still a fraction of the £17.6m it wants to help the starving in Niger, where aid workers say a quarter of the 12m population need aid.

A second aid flight from the UK is due to leave for Niger on Wednesday.

Tags: Niger Africa Mali Oxfam Red Cross aid workers UN starvation West Africa famine drought Mauritania Burkina Faso locusts BBC

Oxfam: Africa famine response 'too little, too late'

Reuters report by Andrew Cawthorne via Mail & Guardian 24 July 2006:

Food emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be "too little, too late", the international aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.

Conflict, HIV/Aids and climate change are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750-million people, with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break the cycle, the British-based group added in a new report.

"It will cost the world far less to make a major investment now in tackling root causes of hunger than continuing the current cycle of too little, too late that has been the reality of famine relief in Africa for nearly half a century," Oxfam Britain's director Barbara Stocking said.

Billions of dollars of aid have been pumped into sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades, and its problems have received unprecedented international attention of late from grassroots campaigners and world leaders like Britain's Tony Blair.

But despite that, a "myopic, short-term" focus has prevailed, with emergency food aid still dominating international action on Africa, rather than long-term support of agriculture, infrastructure and social safety nets, Oxfam said.

It cited this year's drought in East Africa, where up to 11-million people still require urgent assistance, and renewed food insecurity in Niger, where at least one-million people are vulnerable in coming months, as evidence of ongoing crisis.

A third of Africans are under-nourished, Oxfam said, while the number of food emergencies has nearly tripled in 20 years. Nearly half of Africans live on less than a dollar a day.

"MORALLY UNACCEPTABLE"

Conflicts cause more than half of food crises, Oxfam said, citing violence in north Uganda and Sudan's Darfur region.

"Darfur, where 3,4-million people are dependent on food aid, is a classic example of the devastating humanitarian emergency that conflict creates," it said.

The HIV/Aids epidemic is taking "a terrifying toll" on one of the continent's key resources for food production -- its people. Oxfam said a fifth of the agricultural workforce in Southern African countries will have died from HIV/Aids by 2020.

And climate change is "wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small landholders and nomadic pastoralist", the agency added, citing research that 55-65 million more Africans could be at risk of hunger by the 2080s because of temperature rises.

"The story of nearly half a century of attempts at sophisticated and sustainable solutions to hunger in Africa is not a happy one," added the Oxfam report, "Causing Hunger".

As well as supporting long-term projects, Oxfam said real solutions to Africa's food crisis should include:
Buying aid from developing countries. "Most food aid is still imported, meaning it can take up to 5 months to deliver and cost up to 50% more than food purchased locally."
Money-based schemes such as food vouchers, cash-for-work programmes or direct cash transfers.
Increased foreign aid for agriculture, which in fact dropped 43% in the decade to 2002.
More local funds for agriculture, with governments honouring a 2003 African Union pledge to increase spending on the sector to 10% of budgets.

"For people to be hungry in Africa in the 21st century is neither inevitable nor morally acceptable," Oxfam said.

"The world's emergency response requires an overhaul ... the stop-start approach must give way to longer-term support."

The Economics of Famine in Niger

Excerpt from a post on the economics of famine in Niger at DropoutPostgrad:

A U.N. report found that prices in markets in Niger have shot up sharply because of profiteering, said James Morris, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, speaking from San Francisco. Some traders, he said, have raised prices in anticipation of the arrival of aid groups, which often buy food locally to save on transport costs.

Visit www.niger1.com for daily updates about the famine in Niger.



Paul Stoller artwork courtesy Gallery Bundu
http://www.niger1.com/hausa.htm



Touareg son
Courtesy http://www.niger1.com/touaregculture.htm
Learn more about Touareg culture

Food crisis 'runs across Africa'

A report today by the BBC says with attention on food shortages in Niger, aid agencies say a vast hunger belt is stretching across Africa.

People across Africa are affected, from Niger in central Africa to Somalia on the Indian Ocean seaboard.

Latest reports from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network say over 20m people are at risk from food shortages.

The Famine Early Warning network, made up of a variety of aid agencies including the aid arm of the US government, USAid, says no fewer than seven African states are facing food emergencies.

These are mostly on the fringes of the Sahara desert and stretch from Niger, through Chad and Sudan, to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

Libya sends relief load to Niger

May 27, 2008 Reuters report (via ReliefWeb) entitled 'Libya sends aid to drought-hit Niger':

TRIPOLI, May 27 (Reuters) - Libya on Tuesday sent 30 tonnes of humanitarian relief to drought-stricken Niger, one of several African states struggling to cope with a surge in global food prices, Libyan state media said on Tuesday.

Libya also sent a team of doctors and pharmacists to distribute the aid, which includes medicine, clothes and tents, and provide health care to the poor in the Sahelian country, one of the world's top producers of uranium.

Oil-exporting Libya is one of the main sources of aid to its neighbour Niger, an arid country on the southern fringe of the Sahara.

One in five children die before their fifth birthday in Niger, and aid agencies fear rising world prices for basic foods like rice could put decent nutrition beyond the reach of millions of people even if the next harvest is good.

The country suffered a humanitarian emergency in 2005 that threatened 3.5 million people with famine after drought and locusts the previous year wiped out crops in many villages.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi advocates solidarity among Africans in the fight against poverty to prevent what he sees as meddling in the continent by Western powers.

(Writing by Lamine Ghanmi; editing by William Maclean and Giles Elgood).
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May 28, 2008 BBC (News report 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK) entitled 'Libya sends relief load to Niger':

Niger is a vast, arid country often stricken by drought

Libya has sent 30 tons of aid to Niger, one of several African countries struggling to cope with the global rise in food prices.

The aid included medical supplies, clothes, shoes and tents, Libya's state news agency Jana reported.

Medical teams and pharmacists are accompanying the aid to provide medical services and distribute relief.

Last month, aid agencies said thousands of people had left their homes in the south-east due to food shortages.

Niger is one of the world's least-developed nations and more than two-thirds of its people live below the poverty line and 82% rely on agriculture, according to the UN.

Child mortality rates are high, with an estimated one in five children dying before their fifth birthday.

A report in April by international aid groups and the government of Niger said 14,000 people had been displaced in the region of Maradi.

Most of them have fled to cities, with others moving across the border to Nigeria.

The population of one village, Pardakoye, has shrunk from 800 people to 24.

More than three million people were affected by a famine in 2005.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7423134.stm

Malawian President declares food shortage national disaster: No money for Malawi?

The news wires are circulating various reports on alarming news from Malawi. Contango's post entitled "No money for Malawi" says while the world's attention is drawn to northern Pakistan and India, there is not enough money to get food for the people of Malawi. Excerpt:

"These are real people, and it's time to listen when an African President speak like this:

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has declared a national disaster over the food shortages which are threatening almost half the population. In a radio and TV broadcast, the president said the crisis had worsened and the country needed more help.

UN estimates suggest about five million people will need aid after Malawi's worst harvest for more than a decade. Mr Mutharika had been criticised for denying reports of deaths from hunger-related illnesses in Malawi.

And, as the BBC points out; It is not just Malawi which is threatened - across southern Africa, the UN estimates that 12 million people will need help in the coming year."

Apologies to Contango for cribbing whole post but I am supposed to be on a break from blogging over next 5-6 weeks and can't keep up with everything on the Sudan and Uganda without going into full swing.

Just wanted to post this news on Malawi incase any readers here can throw light on what is going on. I am posting it here in Niger Watch to keep some examples of how news of food shortages/famine emerge, especially after Niger turned out not to be a famine at all [see earlier posts here below how world was accused of turning its back on the starving children of Niger].

Mainstream media and bloggers write about food aid to Niger

In his post about mainstream media, blogs and Niger, British blogger Tim Worstall points to an interesting blog entry at Owen's musings on Niger, markets and famine.

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

Niger: "Why didn't help get there sooner?"

Following on from previous posts below, note this excerpt from a post on Famine in Niger at the Salmon blog July 31, 2005:

"As for the bigger picture, listen to Marc Snelling, a member of the British Red Cross Society's Emergency Response Unit, as he responds to the question "Why didn't help get there sooner?"

"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.

Of one thing I'm certain. It's easy to say that we should 'Make Poverty History'. It sounds good.

But there are huge changes that need to be made on every level - political, economic and humanitarian - before that can happen.

For the time being, though, this is an emergency that we and many others are responding to, right here and right now. The wider questions will have to wait."

We've talked about the wider questions in the past, and we'll continue the discussion in the weeks to come. But for now, if you'd like to find out more about Niger or if you'd like to donate to organizations that are at work in Niger, here are a few links."

[Hello Salmon blog: thanks for linking to Niger Watch. Over the past year, I have posted on the wider questions and look forward to following your discussions in the weeks to come.]

Tags: Niger British Red Cross Salmon UN reform famine hunger season malnutrition Make Poverty History Joe Trippi Live 8

BBC's Hilary Andersson reporting on Niger

Today, BBC NEWS online says "many of you have asked about the BBC's coverage of Niger. How did news crews hear about the crisis and has the resulting footage helped? Hilary Andersson reports on her assignment and what it achieved."

Read all about it at "Reporting the crisis in Niger".
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What bloggers are saying

Excellent in depth post on Famine in Niger from the Salmon.

Aldon Hynes at John DeStefano for Connecticut Governor blog links to a CNN article about the drought and famine in Niger.

Tags: Hilary Andersson Niger BBC Africa John DeStefano CNN

Niger: Another African Disaster in the Making?

Thanks to Imnakoya at Grandiose Parlor blog for picking up on my post at Sudan Watch about the 150,000 children facing starvation in Niger.

Imnakoya is a Nigerian chap living in St Paul Minnesota. His insightful post entitled "Niger: Another African Disaster in the Making?" makes this suggestion:

For Starters...during a period of national catastrophe as this, it is morally wrong for any Niger national to eat three meals a day. How about donating at least one meal, or the equivalent, to the hungry? How about using a proportion of high-ranking government officials' salaries in buying food for the needy? How about President Mamadou Tanja of Niger yielding his african robe, cap, and his comfortable official mansion for the time being, and relocate to the feeding camps to help coordinate charity work? How about...African leaders striving to serve their people and not relying on foreign aids all the time?

I would like to expand on Imnakoya's last sentence by saying:

How about African people exhorting African leaders to strive to serve their people and not rely on foreign aid all the time?

Photo: L-R: Congo President Dennis Sassou Nguesso, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Niger President Maamodou Tandja attend the Donors' Conference for the Resuscitation and Sustainable Development of the Chad Basin. (AFP/Alexander Joe June 30, 2005)



Photo: A young infant suffering from severe malnutrition is treated at the Medecins Sans Frontieres center in Maradi. Niger is on the brink of a full-scale malnutrition crisis that threatens at least one quarter of its 12 million people.(AFP/Issouf Sanogo July 22, 2005)



Photo: Rural women who have carried their malnourished children for days across the Sahel desert in search of food rush into an emergency feeding center in the town of Guidan Roumdji, southern Niger, July 1, 2005. On a continent where a man's worth is often measured by his cattle, rivalry for the beasts and the degraded land they graze on is sparking lethal conflicts across Africa. Observers say the violence is rooted in increasingly parched soil which has been battered by overgrazing, erosion, population growth and global warming, exacerbating struggles among human communities with ancient and blood-stained histories. Photo by Finbarr O'reilly/Reuters July 22, 2005)



Photo: A picture taken July 1, 2005 shows the cereal market in the southwestern Niger town of Tahoua. Hundreds of peasant farmers are fleeing into northern Nigeria to escape a drought in the neighbouring west African desert state of Niger, officials said, warning that many would be turned back.(AFP/File/Natasha Burley July 4, 2005)



Photo: King Mohammed VI of Morocco (C) visits a makeshift hospital set up by the Moroccan Army to assist families in need of food aid in northeast Niger. UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland appealed for millions of dollars in aid from donors to tackle an 'acute humanitarian crisis' in the west African state of Niger where 2.5 million people, including 800,000 children, are facing famine (AFP July 21, 2005)

Tags: Niger Africa Morocco Obasanjo food aid aid workers UN starvation West Africa Joe Trippi Cereal Market Doctors Without Borders famine Grandiose Parlor NGO Northern Nigeria MSF

Niger's quiet tragedy

Article published July 22, 2005 toledoblade.com:

MENTION of the African country of Niger these days calls to mind the uranium yellowcake that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson determined Iraq did not buy there, undercutting President Bush's claim to the contrary in a pre-Iraq war State of the Union message.

Would for Niger that that was its only claim to fame. Unfortunately, that large, poor, dry African country is currently suffering the results of five years of drought and a plague of locusts that ate last year's grain harvest. It is estimated that the lives of some 3 million people, a quarter of its population, are at risk from the food shortfall and that thousands of children will die unless international relief is provided immediately. Footage of the suffering is already showing up on television.

The United Nations signaled the problem nine months ago, but unfortunately, the world response has been sluggish. African problems that have attracted attention recently have been more in the nature of violent conflict, notably the Darfur region of Western Sudan, fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's efforts to drive his economy entirely into the ground through insane policies.

Niger's famine is more a quiet tragedy. The country is ranked by the United Nations as the second poorest in the world, after only war-torn Sierra Leone in its grinding poverty.

The United Nations is currently struggling to increase food aid to Niger to slow down the deaths, but its modest $6.2 million budget is still only one-third funded. It is an expensive way to do things but the Bush Administration could do itself a lot of good by using some of America's military air assets, not that far away in Iraq, and some of our country's surplus agricultural products to save the lives of the children of Niger.

Tags: Niger Mugabe Darfur Congo malnutrition aid workers Zimbabwe Iraq West Africa drought Plumpynut United Nations famine Bush Sierra Leone tragedy

Niger to block foreign press reporting food crisis - What's up with Mr Tandja?

Today, Reuters says Niger's government denied it had stripped the journalists of their accreditation, saying it had summoned them to explain that their coverage was one-sided and did not present the country's efforts to solve its problems:

"We did not expel the BBC. We summoned the team to say their report had caused shock and Niger is more than just recurring food shortages," said Fogue Aboubacar, secretary-general at the Culture, Arts and Communication Ministry.

"Niger is also about the authorities attempts to solve these problems and one must stop focusing on the negative side," he added. "That is what happened in 2005 and we are not going to tolerate it, especially as harvests have been good."

"Be it the BBC, CNN or any other media, we will not hand out more accreditation on the food situation," he said.

Full report.
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Committee to Protect Journalists

SPJ News Alert - excerpt: CPJ sources said that government officials insisted that the BBC team had been granted visas to cover bird flu and that they had exceeded their authorization. Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar told Radio France Internationale today that any journalist was free to come to Niger but that "telling stories that are not true is another matter." CPJ attempts to get further comment from the government were unsuccessful.
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What's up with Mr Tandja?

Ali at The Salon writes What's up with Mr. Tandja? and asks "Does someone understand this better than I do?"

I have left a comment at Ali's post, providing a link to a post here at Niger Watch. Last year, I used this blog to monitor reports on Niger's alleged famine. Sorry, right now I am unable to spend more time blogging but if you are interested in getting an insight into why Niger is blocking the press from reporting on Niger's food market, please scroll through each month of archives here in the sidebar, particularly August and September of last year. There are not a great deal of posts within each month, just glancing through the titles will give you an idea of why Niger's Government says it is against the media "telling stories that are not true" - and make up your own mind as to why Niger is being proactive this year in its handling of the media. I'll try write more on this when able at a later date, right now I am upkeeping several blogs and it is time consuming tracking and reading daily news reports on the Sudan, Uganda, DRC, Ethiopia and Niger.

Niger way of life 'under threat'

A report from BBC today says Niger's way of life is under threat if Niger's nomads to not get long-term help to rebuild their herds and livelihoods.

"For Niger's nomads, the situation is desperate. To these people, losing your animals is like losing your life savings. Without their animals, they have no means of survival," said Natasha Kofoworola Quist, Oxfam's Regional Director for West Africa.

"Twelve centuries of nomadic culture are threatened with extinction if these people do not get long-term help to rebuild their livelihoods," she added.

The food shortages were caused by an early end to last year's rainy season, locusts and chronic long-term poverty in Niger, the second poorest country in the world.

"Food aid alone will not solve this crisis. For nomads who have lost all or most of their animals, the harvest will make little difference," said Ms Kofoworola Quist.

[Someone has just emailed me saying: "As I said before: 'Too many people in the wrong place'. This planet doesn't give a damn about 'twelve centuries'."]

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

West Africa hunger map - Africa hunger 'likely to worsen'

Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso have also been badly affected by food shortages.

Click here for information at BBC news online on the situation in each country.

British blogger Keith asks: What will you do?
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Africa hunger 'likely to worsen'

BBC report August 11, 2005:

The number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has soared from 88 million in 1970 to 200 million in 1999-2001, the research found.

The overall percentage of malnourished Africans has actually remained constant over the past 30 years, at about 35%.

Absolute numbers have gone up due to Africa's population growth.

The report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that the Millennium Development goal to halve child malnutrition in Africa by 2015 will fail unless more radical steps are taken now.

It says the number of malnourished children could grow from 38.6 million now to 41.9 million by 2025.

Indirect causes of malnutrition include poor governance, lack of investment in agriculture, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to markets.

Building roads and boosting the information and communication technology sectors would have a positive impact, too, because it would improve productivity and create new markets, the report says.

In order to reach the target of halving hunger by 2015, at least $303bn must be invested - a prospect the report describes as "daunting".

"When the United Nations' member countries meet on 14 September, they have the opportunity to make good on the promises made five years ago," said Mark Rosegrant, the lead author of the report.

"If they are serious [about fulfilling their promises], they need to accelerate the pace of change in Africa."

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

Photographs of Niger - Trickle Up Program: Alleviating poverty one business at a time

Guardian photographer Dan Chung travelled to Niger with reporter Jeevan Vasagar to report on the country's food crisis. See Dan Chung's photographs of Niger, a selection of images from their visit.
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Trickle Up Program: Alleviating poverty one business at a time

Excerpt from Paul Staines' post at the Globalization Institute blog August 7, 2005 on the Trickle Up Program:

Alleviating poverty one business at a time -

Jobs, profits and opportunities for growth depend on individual enterprise and an economic climate that supports growth through trade.

Founded in 1979, the mission of Trickle Up is to help the lowest income people worldwide take the first steps up out of poverty, by providing conditional seed capital, business training and relevant support services essential to the launch or expansion of a microenterprise. This proven social and economic empowerment model is implemented in partnership with local agencies.

Trickle Up has supported over 130,000 businesses in more than 120 countries. Currently, Trickle Up is focusing its efforts in fourteen core countries. These countries are Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, and Uganda and the United States.

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Snippets from bloggers on food crisis in Niger

Aug 7 - Famine in Niger post by Padraig O' Beaglaoich , a 26 year old Youth & Community Worker in Galway, Connacht, Ireland:

Following a severe drought and a plague of locusts, over 5 million people face imminent starvation in Niger as I write.

July 31 - Bill's Big Diamond Blog features a post on Rove entitled "Perjury, He Spoke":

BEFORE Joe Wilson wrote his Op Ed piece on Niger in July, 2003, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post inquired about the “unnamed former diplomat” who had gone to Niger and come back with a negative report on the yellowcake uranium story.

According to Massimo Calabresi at Time, this is what set off the White House into circling the wagons and looking for ways to discredit the Pincus report, now known to be true, that the Niger deal with Iraq for WMD had never gone down.

Tags: Niger Trickle up