Ingrid Patetta films Niger's nomads of the Azawak valley

Ingrid Patetta is a french documentary filmmaker and video editor.

Funny we should share the same first name. Ingrid stumbled upon my blog Niger Watch blog during a search on blogger and emailed me.

Note Ingrid's blog featuring a video she shot in Niger about the nomads of the Azawak valley, and website showing video 'Agadez, Gateway to the Sahara'.

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].

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

Submissions Welcomed For Spotlight On Darfur 2

If you wish to contribute a blog entry for Spotlight on Darfur 2, please contact Eddie Beaver at Live From The FDNF in time for 16 October 2005 deadline.

Jim Moore, co-founder of Sudan: Passion of the Present, recently posted a note from Eddie on this initiative with an important PINR report from Michael Weinstein.

Note, Catez Stevens in New Zealand initiated and hosted Spotlight on Darfur 1 round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world. Jim Moore, in praise of this, writes:

"In my view this work is so fine as to be almost historic. It combines the literary quality of a small, carefully edited book, with the global accessibility of works on the web."



Last May, Catez also produced The Darfur Collection.

Image courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers Live 8 Live From The FDNF Darfur Collection Spotlight on Darfur

UN plans to end large-scale food aid to Niger

BBC news Sep 16 says Niger's prime minister lashed out at donors, saying it was necessary to stop the aid so that Niger does not become reliant on aid:

Niger's PM agrees with UN plans to end large-scale food aid, which he described as an affront to the country's dignity.

"Our dignity suffered. And we've seen how people exploit images to pledge aid that never arrives to those who really need it."

The UN's World Food Programme maintains that cutting aid now will allow food prices in Niger to normalise after escalating during months of severe shortages.

MSF has warned that with almost a million people not yet fed, it is too soon to stop aid.

BBC's Hilary Andersson in Niger says that almost a million people who need it have still received no food aid at all and it is now six weeks since the aid began flowing into Niger in large quantities. She says that large numbers of young children are still dying in feeding centres.

An assessment by MSF this week indicates that more than 40 people a day are dying in just one area that they surveyed.

See full story by BBC September 16, 2005.

Sudan: Spotlight on Darfur 1 and The Darfur Collection

Huge thanks to Catez Stevens in New Zealand for initiating and hosting Spotlight on Darfur 1, a great round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world.



Catez also produced The Darfur Collection last May.

Please email Catez at Allthings2all if you have a post for the next Spotlight on Darfur 2 or 3.

Picture courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Thanks to Global Voices for their third post and links to my blog Congo Watch featuring this initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers blogburst

Katrina aid - Blogbursts - Spotlight on Darfur 1 and Darfur Collection

Further to an earlier post here below, I have just received word from Catez saying Spotlight on Darfur has been put forward to 5 September as the blogosphere has had planned blogbursts on Hurricane Katrina aid. This means bloggers can email Catez with posts until Sunday 4 September.

Thanks to Global Voices for picking up on my post at Congo Watch publicising the initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all Hurricane Katrina aid bloggers blogburst Global Voices

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/
- - -

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

Spotlight on Darfur 1 and The Darfur Collection

Last May, Catez Stevens at Allthings2all in New Zealand kindly put together The Darfur Collection.

Now, Catez is initiating and hosting Spotlight on Darfur 1 starting September 1. It will feature posts on the current Darfur situation from various bloggers. If you are a blogger and would like to send in a post for inclusion in the Spotlight on Darfur please email Catez for details.

Eugene Oregon at Coalition for Darfur helpfully writes Reminder: Spotlight on Darfur 1.

Note, Catez is planning a regular series of Spotlight on Darfur. If you have missed Darfur 1, there is still plenty of time to prepare a post for Spotlight on Darfur 2 or 3 or 4 ...

Large areas of the aid system are in urgent need of reform

The government has been accused of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of African aid in Malawi.

BBC's Five Live Report found more than GBP 700,000 was spent on hotel bills and meals for US workers over four years. BBC Aug 28, 2005 report excerpts:

The National Audit Office said it may mount an investigation into the use of consultants by the Department for International Development (DFID).

One project in Malawi funded by the DFID has been accused of using international flights to fly in pens and notebooks bought in Washington DC.

Patrick Watt of charity Action Aid said: "(This is) another example of aid money not really getting down to people who most urgently need to benefit from it."

He said: "It's an example of phantom aid, when what Malawi needs is real aid."

Conservative international development spokesman Andrew Mitchell said there appears to have been a breakdown in "transparency and accountability".

"DFID need to get a grip and explain what has happened," Mr Mitchell said.

US agencies which had been brought in as consultants included the National Democratic Institute (NDI), used on a project to improve the parliamentary committee system in Malawi.

The GBP 1m donated to the project from US funds was used solely to pay for NDI staff there, the BBC report said.

Over the four years of the project, the DFID donated GBP 3m to the project. Of that, GBP 586,423 was spent on hotels in Malawi for the NDI staff. Another GBP 126,062 was spent on meals.

An ex-staff member said computers, notebooks and other stationery had been bought in Washington DC and flown over rather than bought locally.

World Learning, a US group which had been brought in to distribute GBP 4m of British money to strengthen Malawian society had to cancel the project after six months and a cost of GBP 300,000. Dozens of local staff face losing their jobs.

Mr Watt said the large amounts of money spent of administration and overseas staff meant "there are large areas of the aid system that are in urgent need of reform".

Malawian campaigner Rafiq Hajat said: "Where you have so-called experts who come from outside, charge exorbitant fees, live a five-star lifestyle and then go back having left a couple of reports mouldering on the shelf, that's how I would define phantom aid."

Africa to announce TB emergency

BBC Health Correspondent Ania Lichtarowicz reports today that health Ministers from across Africa are meeting in Mozambique to discuss the growing numbers of tuberculosis (TB) cases across the region.

Africa is particularly hit because of co-infections with HIV and a lack of health infrastructure to monitor and treat the disease.

The WHO hopes that by making TB a regional health emergency, it will put the disease back on the agenda.

Red Cross worker's Niger diary - UN chief promises aid for Niger

Red Cross worker Mark Snelling is about to return from Niger to London - in his diary he writes of signs of hope and says:

There will be many lessons for the world to learn from Niger once the emergency has passed.

Donors, governments, NGOs and the media must examine why we need to wait for a crisis to erupt before we fully respond. But we can also be proud of work well done.

Aid work must not be sentimentalised. Narcissistic rescue fantasies do not save lives.

There are ugly politics and crazy decisions here, just like everywhere else.

I have encountered some of the best people I've ever met in the humanitarian world, and on occasion some of the worst.

Blanket criticism of aid intervention will not help anyone either. Human suffering will always be with us, whatever we might say about making poverty history.

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UN chief tours impoverished Niger

Kofi Annan visits eastern Niger to view a crippling food crisis that critics say the UN is failing to address properly.

Full story at BBC.
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UN chief promises aid for Niger

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has promised Niger all the aid it needs to cope with the food crisis.

He was speaking after meeting President Mamadou Tandja at the end of his two-day trip to Niger.

The talks follow criticism of the UN's response to the shortages, which are affecting more than 2.5m people, with 32,000 children facing death.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said this week the UN's response was inadequate.

Mr Tandja has also criticised the UN effort, saying the problems have been exaggerated.

"We discussed the food crisis in Niger and in the region, and measures that ought to be taken to ensure what has happened this year, does not happen in the future," Mr Annan said. "But quite a lot of it requires regional cooperation."

He was also meeting local officials from UN and other aid agencies.

The UN has run an appeal but has been accused of not acting quickly enough and of not ensuring that the aid gets to those who need it most.

Less than half the $81m (GBP 45m) called for by the UN has been pledged by international donors, the organisation says.

Full story at BBC Aug 24. 2005.

Patriarchy in Niger - The men take control

From British blogger Mick Hartley:

The men take control.

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 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

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

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.

- - -

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

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

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.

Niger: British Red Cross aid worker's diary

Mark Snelling is a member of the British Red Cross Society's Emergence Response Unit in Niger.

See his diary at the BBC News website.

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

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

John Bolton

Hopefully, John Bolton will give the UN's World Food Programme a shake up to help prevent another disaster like what happened in Darfur and Niger.



AP report and cartoons via Cox & Forkum Aug 1, 2005:

Bush Appoints Bolton, Bypassing Senate

President Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, ending a five-month impasse with Democrats who accused Bolton of abusing subordinates and twisting intelligence to fit his conservative ideology.

"This post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform," Bush said. He said Bolton had his complete confidence.



Tags: Niger Democrats Bush Senate UN Bolton John Bolton

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

Niger's Anguish Is Reflected in Its Dying Children

By MICHAEL WINES
The New York Times

One child in five is dying - the result of a belated response by the outside world to a food crisis predicted nine months ago.

Tags: Niger Africa drought famine New York Times food crisis

West African Food Crisis

Please read Keith's important post on the West African Food Crisis highlighting the fact that although Niger has been the worst hit so far, and has had the most attention, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania are also badly affected.

Tags: Niger West Africa drought famine Burkina Faso Mali Mauritania food crisis

Mauritania officers 'seize power' - Overthrown President Taya has arrived in Niger

Mauritanian army officers have announced the overthrow of the country's president and creation of a military council to rule the country.

The council said it had ended the "totalitarian regime" of Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya. President Taya, attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd at the time, was flown to Niger's capital, Niamey.

It named security chief Col Ely Ould Mohammed Vall as the new leader.

The national armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the oppressive activities of the defunct authority Officers' statement.

The new Military Council for Justice and Democracy said it would rule the West African state for a transitional period of two years, after which it would organise free and fair elections.

President Taya took power in a bloodless coup in December 1984 and has been re-elected three times since.

Correspondents say he later made enemies among Islamists in the country, which is an Islamic republic.

MAURITANIA

Dominated by light-skinned Arabic-speakers (Moors)
Black Africans complain of discrimination
Mostly desert
Islamic republic
Recognises Israel
Mauritania is deeply divided between three main groups - light-skinned Arabic-speakers, descendents of slaves and dark-skinned speakers of West African languages.

Source: BBC news online. See today's report that provides links to:

Army coup: Full statement
Q&A: Power struggles

Excerpts from the report:

There were street celebrations in the capital, Nouakchott, as troops controlled key points. African and world bodies condemned the action.

The African Union said it "strongly condemns any seizure of power or any attempt to take power by force".

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply troubled" by the reports, insisting political disagreements should be settled peacefully and democratically, a spokesman said.

Note, the report quotes President Olusegun Obasanjo of regional powerhouse Nigeria as saying "the days of tolerating military governance in our sub-region or anywhere" were "long gone".

[Eh? What about all the rebels groups fighting for power in countries like Uganda, DR Congo and the regime in the Sudan? The Islamic regime in Khartoum stole power through a coup. And what about the Southern Sudan rebel group SPLM's 21 year war to take control of South Sudan? And the Darfur rebel groups SLA and JEM fighting to take control of Darfur? My understanding is none were democratically elected. They all appear to be fighting for power using the barrel of a gun. African politics sure are confusing.]
- - -

UPDATE: AU punishes Mauritania over coup

Via BBC Aug 5, 2005:

The African Union (AU) has suspended Mauritania's membership in protest at the coup there on Wednesday, saying it must restore "constitutional order".

Ministers will travel to the capital, Nouakchott, to inform the coup leaders officially of the AU's position.

Under AU rules, a country is automatically suspended if it brings about unconstitutional changes.
- - -

The Arabization of Mauritania

Update Aug 6 - the crossfader writes this:

From Business Day (Jo'berg):

For the past two decades ethnic black Mauritanians have been systematically driven from the country's southern region by an Arab-led government vying to take control of the fertile lands of the southern valley.

More than 120000 "Negro-Mauritanians" have been deported to neighbouring Mali and Senegal, and forced to live in squalid refugee camps unnoticed by the international community, says Abdarahmane Wone, communications director for North America of the African Liberation Forces of Mauritania.

Overseeing the brutal campaign is President Maaouya Ould Sid'Hamed Taya, who has been in power for about 22 years.

We can add this to the list of things that will not receive attention this millennium.

Why starving in Niger?

Photo: An emaciated boy waits for treatment at an emergency feeding centre in the town of Tahoua in northwestern Niger, August 2, 2005.

Reuters says Niger's food crisis shows how the world often only reacts to pleas for help from the poorest countries after missing earlier opportunities to avert disaster, forcing donors to pay for much costlier emergency aid.

Relief workers blame the neglect partly on a general fatigue for African hunger crises from Malawi to Sudan, but Niger has raised more complex questions over aid policy, funding and longer-term solutions. (Reuters/Finbarr via Yahoo)

Tags: Niger Africa starvation drought famine

Could the Crisis in Niger Have Been Avoided?

Sorry, still unable to post original commentary here right now. Just wanted to log these initial news reports on Niger. Everyone seems to be asking the questions that ought to have been asked last year about Darfur.

Note the following copy of a press release from World Vision via PR Newswire Aug 2, 2005 entitled Could the Crisis in Niger Have Been Avoided?:

- The United Nations issued warnings last November, but other more immediate crises diverted donors' attention.
- "Niger is a good example of a hidden emergency that could have been prevented." - Jules Frost, World Vision

As images of starving children in the African nation of Niger appear in the news media, the world is witnessing a harsh reminder of the cost of ignoring an emerging famine. Those responding to the crisis are asking, "Was the crisis in Niger inevitable?"

"The crisis in Niger is a good example of a hidden emergency that could have been prevented," says Jules Frost, World Vision's Director for Emergency Response. "After the locust invasion and the drought wiped out the crops last year, it was easy to predict the food emergency we have in Niger today. The warnings were sounded, but unfortunately the world's attention was on the immediate crisis of the day."

Frost noted that Niger's leaders, along with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies government, in cooperation with international relief agencies, issued warnings last November. However, other, more immediate crises, such as Darfur in Sudan and later in December and January, the Asian tsunami, diverted the attention of private and public donors, as well as the news media.

According to the United Nations, of the $16 million the U.N. requested for Niger food aid several months ago, less than a third had been received until about 10 days ago -- when the first stories of the crisis images began appearing in the media.

"Now we are watching the images of starving children on television, and for many of those children, it is too late," Frost says. "But it is not too late to save countless others."

About 2.5 million people in Niger -- or 20 percent of the population -- urgently need food assistance, the U.N. says. One in five children is severely malnourished.

World Vision has been working in areas where about 400,000 people are at risk of starvation, Frost says. The organization is expanding nutritional feeding centers and distributing emergency food rations, in addition to providing health services in some areas, particularly in the hard-hit regions of Maradi and Zinder.

The Christian humanitarian agency also is working with local communities to address the root causes of Niger's crisis through the provision of clean water, healthcare, diversified agriculture, and education.

Frost notes that people in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Sudan, as well as other nations, also are experiencing rapidly increasing malnutrition rates and that now is the time to invest to prevent famines elsewhere across the continent.

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. The agency serves the world's poor, regardless of a person's religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

Source: World Vision

Tags: Niger Africa World Vision

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".
- - -

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

Sudanese VP Dr John Garang DeMabior, 13 Others Die in Plane Crash

See news on the tragic death of Dr Garang at Sudan Watch: Sudan's first VP and former rebel leader killed.

Tags: Garang Niger Darfur Africa

Spiegel interview with African economics expert James Shikwati: "For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

Not sure what to think about Der Spiegel Interview July 4, 2005 with African Economics Expert: 'For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!'

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

[via INCITE: Aid to Africa: Please Stop - with thanks]

Niger's people living on the edge

Drought and plagues of locusts have caused severe food shortages in Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world. Aid agencies have warned that 3.6 million people could be affected. Visiting Niger, BBC correspondent David Loyn reflects on whether part of the blame could lie with the foreign policy of other countries."

Read full story Niger's people living on the edge.

Tags: Niger Africa

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

See Channel 4 News special report: Niger 'worse than Darfur'
- - -

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."

- - -

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.
- - -

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

Aid flight to set off for Niger

BBC news reports today that an aid flight organised by Save the Children UK with 41 tons of emergency feeding supplies on board is due to set off for drought-hit west African country Niger.

Note, the report quotes Phil Bloomer of Oxfam as saying the food crisis in Niger was predicted months ago and could easily have been prevented. And, the combination of locust damage and drought is also affecting Niger's neighbours Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Aid these days is a multi billion dollar industry that provides a huge number of well paid jobs. What is going on here re Niger and why was the UN so slow to respond in Darfur last year? No doubt the majority of aid workers do a magnificent job but, since the whole business is funded from the public purse, where is the accountability and who is responsible for taking a year to act on getting emergency food to people who are starving?

Excerpt from the report:

The aid is fully funded by the UK's Department for International Development, out GBP 3m pledged to help Niger's estimated 3.6m people in need.

A World Food Programme plane is also preparing to leave Italy with food.

Oxfam is urging the United Nations to form a $1bn emergency fund so future famines can be tackled without delay.

The Save the Children flight from Ostend to the Niger capital Niamey will be carrying specialist food and equipment to support one month of feeding for severely malnourished children and those recovering from malnutrition.

The WFP plane from Rome will be carrying 80 tons of high-nutrition biscuits and logistical equipment.

Agencies including the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres have already started feeding some children, but many people have to be turned back from feeding centres because there is not enough aid for all.

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.

Experts are warning the crisis could get worse before it gets better.

The combination of locust damage and drought is also affecting Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Aid agency Oxfam said the famine could have been prevented if there had been an emergency fund, despite the slowness of the international community to respond to appeals.

Oxfam's proposal for an emergency fund is on the agenda for a special United Nations summit in September.

"Starvation does not have to be inevitable," said Oxfam campaigns director Phil Bloomer.

Yes, it's True, There are Slaves in Niger...

Read all about it at African Bullets & Honey.

Also, see On Safari with El Jorgito: Smile and the World Starves with You.

[Via Paul Frankenstein at Global Voices - with thanks]

Tags: Niger Africa slaves slavery Paul Frankenstein Global Voices African Bullets and Honey

Keith at Under the Acacias in England blogs about Niger

See Keith's new post about Niger at his wonderful blog Under the Acacias.

Tags: Niger Africa

Niger neighbours also face hunger

The food crisis in Niger, which had been predicted for almost a year, also threatens three other countries in the region - Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, the United Nations has warned.

At least 2.5m people in the three countries need food aid and like Niger they were hit by drought and a plague of locusts last year.

Full Story at BBC News online 26 July, 2005.

Tags: Niger Africa Mali UN starvation West Africa famine drought Mauritania Burkina Faso locusts BBC

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

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: Government refuses to distribute free food - 3m people need food aid - 150,000 children face starvation - French aid starts arriving

22 July 2005 BBC report says aid from France is arriving in Niger. More food is expected to be flown in by the UN's World Food Programme over the weekend.

Note, the report says the food crisis had been predicted for almost a year and the Niger government has sought to downplay the scale of the crisis, refusing demands to distribute free food, and aid workers in Niger say that up to a quarter of the country's 12 million people need food aid. Excerpt:

A plane carrying food aid has landed in Niger, where some 150,000 children are said to be facing starvation.

However, the BBC's Hilary Andersson in southern Niger says the 16 tons of aid is a "drop in the ocean".

Some 23,000 tons of food are needed for more than 2.5m people, the UN says. The food crisis follows poor rains and locust invasions last year.

Children are dying every day and many are too sick to make it to the few feeding centres which have been set up.

The plane carrying oil, sugar and Plumpynut - a highly nutritious paste for young children - was sent by French aid agency Reunir.



Photo: An employee at Marseille-Proovence airport looks over crates filled with 18 tons of food supplies bound for Niger. After months of desperate appeals, Niger began receiving shipments of emergency food aid from western development partners. (AFP/Patrick Valasseris July 22, 2005)

Another airlift is expected over the weekend, containing 40 tons of millet and 28 tons of oil, says the UN's World Food Programme.

In a single feeding centre, about 20 children out of 100 children have died in the past few weeks, our correspondent says.



Photo: A worker with the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) registers the names of malnourished children at a feeding centre in the town of Guidan Roumdji in southern Niger June 30, 2005. The worst drought in years has left 3.6 million people short of food in the West African country. Already counted among the poorest of the world's poor, Niger's farmers simply cannot afford to buy what is still on offer. Their children, in ones and twos, are beginning to die, for want of a few cents worth of food. Poverty is killing them. As the Group of Eight industrialised countries meet in Scotland next week to discuss ways to help Africa, Niger's emaciated children provide a case study of rich world inaction. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly July 2, 2005)

The charity Oxfam said families were feeding their children grass and leaves from trees to keep them alive.



Photo: Swiss Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur of the commission on human rights on the right to food, shows a plant called Anza, a bitter fruit people in Niger are obliged to eat because of severe food shortage, as he speaks about the food situation in Niger after returning from a mission in the central African country, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, July 13, 2005. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini July 13, 2005)

The UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, on Wednesday accused the international community of reacting slowly to the crisis in Niger.

The crisis was widely predicted after last year's poor harvests but initial food appeals went largely unheeded.

The Niger government has also sought to downplay the scale of the crisis, refusing demands to distribute free food.

"The world wakes up when we see images on the TV and when we see children dying," Mr Egeland told the BBC's World Today programme.



Photo: Women carry water from a well at the village of Koumboula in southern Niger July 1, 2005. The United Nations said on July 12, 2005 it needed to provide emergency food aid in Niger for almost three times as many people as initially estimated, partly because donors had been slow to react to the crisis. Starving children are dying every day in aid-agency feeding centres in the arid West African nation, where the worst drought in years has aggravated chronic food shortages and left some 3.6 million people -- roughly a quarter of the population -- hungry. Picture taken July 1, 2005. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly July 12. 2005)

The slow response has greatly increased the cost of dealing with the crisis, aid workers say.

"The funding needs are sky-rocketing because it's a matter of saving lives," WFP Niger representative Gian Carlo Cirri said.

"The pity is we designed a preventative strategy early enough, but we didn't have the chance to implement it."

Aid workers in Niger say that up to a quarter of the country's 12 million people need food aid.

The UN has now received only a third of the $30m it had asked for, Mr Egeland said.

Mr Egeland also said that beyond immediate food aid, the world should help Niger improve its agricultural methods to avoid future food crises - but this programme had received even fewer pledges.



Photo: Girls carry basins of water at a village in southern Niger, June 30, 2005. Rains on Niger's dust-blown fields have kindled hopes a devastating drought may be ending, but relief workers warned on Monday that more aid was needed to save starving children. Rich nations largely ignored Niger's calls for help last year when failed rains and locusts pushed 3.6 million people to the brink of starvation in the arid West African country, which has difficulty feeding itself even in good years. Picture taken July 1, 2005. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly July 18, 2005)

Tags: Niger Africa G8 Oxfam Anza aid workers UN starvation West Africa Jan Egeland Plumpynut Doctors Without Borders famine locusts Hilary Andersson BBC

UN on Niger: "In the last few days, the world has finally woken up"

Photo: A malnourished child is being weighed upon his arrival at a Doctors Without Borders aid.   The bobbing needle only confirms what Doctor Chantal Umutoni feared -- five and a half kilograms, when he should weigh at least 15. (AFP/File)

Fri Jul 22, 2005 MARADI, Niger (AFP) - So weak that he cannot raise his hand to swipe away the flies that settle on him, Hamissou lies still in the arms of his grandmother, who herself can barely muster the strength to lift him onto the scale.

The chances for survival of this three-year-old are as slim as his spindly arms and legs, making him yet another potential victim of the hunger afflicting Niger.

After months of warnings and desperate appeals for aid, the northwest African country is on the brink of a full-scale malnutrition crisis that threatens at least one quarter of its 12 million people.

"In early May, we recorded 390 admissions per week. Last week we were at 717," said a visibly worried Mego Terzian, field coordinator for the relief organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), which has set up therapeutic feeding centers in the hardest-hit south and center of the vast nation.

Maradi, some 600 kilometers (360 miles) east of the capital Niamey, is considered the epicenter of the food crisis produced by years of drought and compounded by last year's invasion of desert locusts, the worst to hit Niger and its Sahel neighbors in more than a decade.

With its national cereal stocks depleted and prices of imports soaring, Niger is facing a crisis that could rob parents of 150,000 children before it is over, according to estimates from international relief organizations.

International aid has been slowly arriving in the form of fruit juices and bags of grain from countries such as Libya and Morocco, but western donor mainstays have only begun to offer sizable contributions of financial and in-kind assistance.

A first planeload of food from France, coordinated by the relief agency Reunir, or reunite, founded by former health minister Bernard Kouchner, arrived Thursday.

Other laden Antonov cargo planes bearing nutritive-packed peanut butter, peanut oil and grains are also expected to touch down over the weekend.

"In the last few days, the world has finally woken up," a triumphant Jan Egeland, coordinator of relief for the United Nations, said Friday from Geneva.

"We got in ten days more than in the past ten months (and) I am hopeful that we will get most of what we have appealed for," he said of the 30 million-dollar request for food, development and medical aid launched by the UN.

"This is not much money: this is 20 minutes of the world's military spending. I think the world can afford it."

The United Nations is not alone to stump for aid for Niger, no stranger to chronic malnutrition as one of the world's least developed countries with poverty levels at a crushing 80 percent.

In an appeal to ensure that Niger's Sahel neighbors escape its hungry fate, the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday asked for another 11.5 million euros (14 million dollars) to help feed Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.

"The next harvest is due in three months, so seeds will need to be distributed and sown in the next couple of weeks," ICRC mission coordinator Langdon Greenhalgh said.

The next couple of weeks are also critical for children like Hamissou, whose bloated belly, skeletal limbs and glazed expression are symptomatic of marasma, an advanced stage of malnutrition.

Children treated at MSF's feeding centers are carefully pumped full of nutrients in an easily digestible form, with PlumpyNut peanut butter a favored way to bring their weight levels up in a healthy and sustained way.

More than 12,000 children have passed through the MSF centers since January, spending as much time as needed under the care and ministration of the doctors and volunteers until they reach their proper weight.

Thirteen-month-old Bacha is almost there, having added two kilograms in the last 15 days.

"I am so, so happy," said his relieved mother, Ai, who came from Zinder, 220 kilometers east, for treatment for her son and will depart soon bearing food supplies to feed Bacha's six other brothers and sisters.

"He is a different baby."

Report courtesy http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/nigerfoodcrisis

Tags: Niger Africa Sahel Maradi malnutrition aid workers Burkina Faso Libya West Africa Antonov Plumpynut Doctors Without Borders famine locusts Mali Mauritania

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

Ireland: Conor Lenihan announces 1 million euros for humanitarian crisis in Niger

Source: Government of Ireland via ReliefWeb 21 Jul 2005 - copy report:

Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, today pledged 1 million euros to support the international response to the current food crisis in Niger.

Speaking after a meeting with Paddy Maguinness, Deputy Chief Executive of Concern, the Minister said:

"The situation in Niger continues to deteriorate. The current food shortages are affecting more than 3.6 million people and the levels of child malnutrition are particularly acute.

The Department has been monitoring the situation closely in recent weeks, working in close contact with UN partners, including the World Food Programme, and with Concern, who have been working on the ground in Niger for some years.

Today's pledge of 1 million euros shows that Ireland is stepping up to the plate and doing so in a timely fashion.

I am immediately making available 500,000 euros of this money to Concern. They are on the ground and already providing assistance.

It is important to see the situation in Niger in the context of other food shortages in Africa. In June, I announced funding of 2.5 million euros to help address such emergencies in Southern Africa. There are also ongoing and emerging humanitarian crises in Sudan and in the Horn of Africa which we are addressing. It is important that the international community keep up to speed on developments and respond appropriately.

It is also vital to prevent such crises occurring. Ireland is funding a range of disaster prevention activities including supporting the UN in its efforts to prevent or mitigate the type of natural disaster we see in Niger where the effects of locust infestation are compounding an already very difficult situation caused by drought."



Photo: A malnourished child waits for treatment at a feeding center run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers in the town of Maradi in southern Niger July 1, 2005. The situation in Niger highlights Africa's plight days ahead of next week's Group of Eight industrialized nations summit in Scotland, where Britain plans to put fighting poverty on the (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters July 12, 2005)

Note for Editors:

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries, ranked 176th out of 177 on the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index.

A severe drought last year, combined with a plague of locusts, destroyed much of the crop that was needed to feed the people and the cattle they rely on. This has compounded already severe food shortages. 800,000 children under-five are suffering from hunger, including 150,000 who have exhibited signs of severe malnutrition.

Priority humanitarian needs as identified by the UN partner agencies include:

- Recuperation of malnourished children under five and pregnant and lactating women through therapeutic and supplementary feeding.

- Increase in food availability and accessibility at community-level, through subsidised sales, food-for-work activities, cash-for-work, food-for-training, and support to cereal banks.

- Support to existing health services to prevent water-borne diseases in affected areas.

To date in 2005, Ireland has provided over 12 million euros in emergency support to UN agency partners for activities from the tsunami affected region to critical, ongoing humanitarian crises in Africa. In addition, funding support of some 20 million euros has been provided to date in 2005 to Non-Governmental Organisation partners to support their emergency programme activities across a number of the most urgent humanitarian situations including Darfur in Western Sudan and the evolving Southern Africa food emergency.

Tags: Niger Ireland Concern Southern Africa malnutrition aid workers food emergency West Africa drought UN famine tsunami NGO Darfur