UN denies imminent halt to food aid, WHO sends anti-malaria drugs

United Nations agencies will not cut off food aid to those most at risk from Niger’s food crisis, but will next month begin tapering off widespread handouts to protect the livelihoods of the families the UN aims to help, UN officials said on Monday. And as part of UN efforts to tackle the knock-on effects of Niger’s food crisis, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is sending health teams and medicines to the country to prevent malaria as the peak season for the deadly mosquito-borne disease begins. With small children most at risk, WHO announced on Tuesday it is sending 100,000 anti-malarial treatments to Niger. On Monday the UN Development Programme (UNDP) hit out against media reports of a stop to food aid to the hungry in mid-October in Niger. The head of the UNDP, Michele Falavigna, said at a news conference that he hoped to clarify reports which, he said, gave the impression that the UN would utterly halt aid to Niger while some were still in dire need. “I can assure you that, on the contrary, the United Nations is pursuing its food aid,” he said in the capital, Niamey. Falavigna pointed to broadcast reports last week spotlighting criticism by the medical aid group, Medecins Sans Frontieres, that a UN plan to phase out free food distributions at the harvest in October to avoid market disruptions would leave many people hungry. MSF, long critical of the UN’s relief effort in Niger, voiced its concern as the UN World Food Programme (WFP) moved into its second phase of food aid - phasing out general free food distributions and targeting a narrower group of those deemed the most critically in need. WFP, formulating its plan in consultation with the government and other partners, has long intended to end widespread food distributions once the harvest is in full swing, so as not to disrupt the already touchy cereal market. “We cannot allow a situation to develop whereby the poorest people - the very people we have been trying to assist - have no commercial value for their harvest,” Marcus Prior, WFP spokesperson for West Africa, said from Niamey on Tuesday. “These farmers have to be able to make enough money to purchase what they need for their families. It is absolutely essential that these farmers have a crop that has a commercial value.” Agency officials say that by no means will food be cut off to the hungry. WFP recently launched its second round of food dispatches, targeting 1.7 million people deemed still extremely vulnerable. Those receiving food in the second round are expected to include families who might not enjoy the decent harvest expected across the country, families who have mortgaged their harvests, and herders who lost all their livestock. Seidou Bakari, head of Niger’s food crisis unit, noted the government’s fear that if mass free food distributions did not stop in time there would be a grave effect on cereal prices. But he said he is confident that the UN and the government are working hand-in-hand on food assistance. “After all, we are making these decisions together,” Bakari said. He added that a group comprising representatives of government, the UN, other NGO partners and donors is set to meet on 21 September and the timing of food distributions will be on the agenda. UNDP Niger’s Falavigna told reporters on Monday that to date the UN has received just 50 percent of the US $80 million it requested from donors for its overall humanitarian aid programme for Niger. WHO said its 100,000 anti-malarial treatments to Niger were in addition to 50,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets, donated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and distributed by WHO. Even under ordinary conditions, 50 percent of all deaths among children under five are from malaria, the agency said in a statement. “For Niger’s children, malaria represents just as big a threat as hunger at present,” Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, director of WHO’s Roll Back Malaria Department, added in the statement. “We hope our efforts will help the country to cross this difficult passage, without losing more young lives to this preventable and curable disease.” Dr Ousmane Ibrahim, coordinator of Niger’s malaria programme, told IRIN the health ministry is monitoring malaria particularly closely in central and northwest zones, “hardest hit by malnutrition.” While good rains in the country are a boon for harvests, they also bring conditions conducive to the spread of malaria. Ibrahim said measures by the government along with international partners have already helped to keep malaria in check, but added, “We must remain vigilant and continue our interventions until November, when all stagnant water from the rains should be gone.”