Niger Faces Major Food Emergency

The African country of Niger is rarely mentioned in this country. The only time we've heard it mentioned in the last few years is in relation to the Wilson/Plame/Karl Rove scandal - that the CIA sent ambassador Wilson to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein sought to buy uranium from the country. The claim was not true even though President Bush said it was during his 2003 State of the Union address.

But the African country is facing an immense crisis of its own. In Niger, 3.3 million people, including almost a million children, are facing starvation after a drought and locusts wiped out last year's harvest. It is listed as the second least developed country in the world by the United Nations development program. More than 25% of Niger's children die before their fifth birthday. Jan Egeland, United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the emergency could have been prevented.

* Jan Egeland, UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
"We have a full blown emergency in Niger, children are dying from hunger, it was all predictable, the government and we appealed in November last year, again in March, and we had a huge flash appeal as we call it in mid-May. I met with all of the donors here in New York on the 13th of May, and only now these days in mid -July when the images come on television of dying, starving children, do we receive the funding we need."

In the last few days, the United Nations has more than doubled the number of people it plans to feed in Niger. The U.N World Food Program announced that it will now aim to provide emergency rations to 2.5 million people. Last week, the agency's stated goal was 1.2 million. Relief workers on the ground say the UN and other agencies should have started the large-scale emergency food aid much earlier. _Development agencies have criticized the world media for not bringing the crisis to the attention of the public despite numerous efforts from these agencies to get the story in newspapers and on television. The Chief Executive of the Disaster Emergency Committee, Brendan Gormley told Scotland's Sunday Herald, “the whole push of G8 and Live8 was to get away from chronic images of African starvation and Niger didn't fit. It risked falling in the "old" Africa. The public and politicians weren”t looking because of the emphasis on reaching a long term resolve for Africa. Sadly, People are hungry now.”

* Johanne Sekkennes, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Niger.

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