NIGER: Tens of thousands of children in Niger are not getting enough food and an increasing number are dying of malnutrition, the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said yesterday.
A survey last month in the eastern region of Zinder showed "alarming conditions" and a worsening situation, with one in five children suffering from malnutrition, MSF said.
Mortality rates in the Zinder region for children under the age of five have risen to 5.3 deaths per 10,000 per day, more than double the internationally recognised emergency threshold of two deaths per 10,000 per day, according to an MSF statement.
"Unless children suffering from malnutrition receive massive care, this human disaster will be even more tragic," Christian Captier, general director of MSF Switzerland, said in Zinder. The situation was even worse for children under 30 months, with nearly one in three malnourished and 5.6 per cent severely malnourished, it said.
MSF has accused the United Nations of being too slow to mount an emergency response in the west African country, where the world body says 3.6 million people face food shortages following last year's drought and locust invasions.
"The problem with Niger has been the lack of response. The response came very late, too late," Christiane Berthiaume of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), said yesterday.
"We are still underfunded," she added, noting WFP had only received 58 per cent of the $57.6 million (€47 million) it is seeking for Niger.
MSF has treated more than 30,000 severely malnourished children at emergency nutritional facilities in and around Maradi, Tahoua, Zinder, Diffa and Tilaberi.
Medical teams estimate they will treat more than 40,000 children for severe malnutrition by year-end, it said. - (Reuters)