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Niger appealed for international help on Friday to avert a famine threat, the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) reported on Saturday. The call, made during a parliamentary debate on the country’s food situation, came two months after a similar appeal that was unsuccesful.
Niger’s authorities estimate its food deficit at some 160,000 mt, PANA reported. In some villages, production has dropped by 20 percent. In an attempt to head off a potential disaster, the government has launched a food-for-sale campaign aimed at allowing the population to buy the staple millet at lower prices. Parliament has also asked the government to implement a policy to improve the management of food production and distribution during food crises, the agency reported.
Food production has also dropped in several other countries in West Africa’s Sahel belt. Overall output in the Sahel has decreased by 23 percent, AFP reported the CILSS, a subregional organisation that links the nine Sahelian states, as saying on Thursday at the end of a meeting it held in Bamako.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions