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Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Nigerian child starving due to nationwide food shortage.
A food crisis is threatening three other countries in the region of Niger — a country facing severe food shortages after drought and plagues of locusts — the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned.
The three — Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania — have been affected by drought and plagues of locusts that engulfed the Sahel region of West Africa last August.
About 6 million are short of food and require food aid: 3.5 million from Niger; 1.1 million from Mali; 750,000 from Mauritania; and 500,000 from Burkina Faso.
The United Nations — which has a Consolidated Appeal for West Africa of just under £196 million US dollars in aid for the region this year — is expecting to feed 250,000 people shortly. In May, OCHA made an additional flash appeal for $16,191,000 US dollars.
Over the past few weeks, the media has shown graphic images of the situation in Niger. Jan Egelend, OCHA Under-Secerary General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, claims that the situation in the region prior to this was largely ignored by the international community, saying that: "Over the last few days, the world has finally woken up, but it took graphic images of dying children for this to happen."
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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
