NIGER: Crews unloaded boxes of high-energy biscuits from a cargo aircraft early on Sunday as thousands of tons of food aid gradually arrived in this famished west African nation, thanks to recent surges of donations.
After months of little international response to growing food shortages, contributions have begun flowing, and so too finally has food.
The boxes of biscuits were flown in from Italy. A caravan of trucks carrying rice made their way up from Lome, the capital of Togo, where aid workers were also expecting a shipload of corn.
The 38,000 tons of food expected to arrive over the next two weeks will be 12 times more than what previously had been available, said Stefanie Savariaud, spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme in Niamey, Niger's capital.
"We're getting closer to having the situation under control," Ms Savariaud said by phone. She cautioned it would be weeks before enough feeding centres were open to reach the estimated 2.5 million people in need of food.
The donated foodstuffs are expected to bolster supplies at major feeding centres and enable aid workers to fan out to rural villages to reach those too weak to walk to towns and cities, UN officials said. Feeding centres also plan to begin offering free food to a wider range of people, moving beyond the mothers and young children initially targeted.
The inflow of aid, however, will not immediately curb the growing food crisis here, especially among children. The recent arrival of seasonal rains is producing a spike in diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea among children, adding to the burden at hospitals, aid workers say.
In the Maradi area of southern Niger, Doctors Without Borders treated 719 children three weeks ago, 939 two weeks ago and 1,239 last week. The medical aid group said the upward trend showed no sign of easing, and 5 per cent of those seen by doctors were already so sick they were not expected to survive.
In the best of times, this poor, dry, landlocked nation barely has enough food to feed its 11.7 million people. Less than 4 per cent of the land is considered arable. Droughts are common and cash-generating exports are few. An attack of locusts last year only added to the strain.
Unicef estimates there are 200,000 malnourished children in Niger, 32,000 of whom are severely malnourished. Over the past two weeks, donors have pledged $22.8 million (€18.5 million) to the World Food Programme. UN officials have increased their appeal, saying Niger needs $57.6 million (€46.6 million), as costs grow sharply now the rainy season has made transport far more difficult on Niger's meagre road network. Together with two other UN agencies, the total request from international donors is for $80 million (€64.7 million).
Similar problems are growing in several other west African countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Across the region, food shortages threaten 4.2 million people. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)