UN appeals for $16 million for "silent crisis" of hunger

Niger needs more than US $16 million of emergency aid between now and the end of September to stop almost a third of its population going hungry, the United Nations said on Thursday as it launched an appeal for the semi-desert nation. The combination of last year's drought and locust swarms wiped out crops equivalent to 15 percent of Niger's average cereal production and almost 40 percent of the country's livestock fodder. Now the UN says that 3.6 million of the country's 12 million inhabitants are at risk of going hungry. "A ''silent crisis' is looming in Niger," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its appeal for US $16.2 million. "This year food stocks and funds managed by the (national food coordinating body) have been fully mobilised to meet approximately half the needs of the crisis and will soon be depleted," it warned. Niger, an arid landlocked country that borders the Sahara, is ranked the second poorest nation in the world on the UN Human Development Index. Almost two thirds of Niger's people live on less than a dollar a day. After last year's disastrous mix of vegetation-munching locusts and crop-withering drought, aid workers have already sounded the alarm, warning that some 800,000 children aged five are suffering from hunger. Of these, 150,000 are malnourished. OCHA said the next few months before the October harvest would be a critical time for Niger's inhabitants who had not managed to grow enough food to sustain themselves and their families through the so-called lean season. A recent survey carried out by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Helen Keller International in the southern districts of Maradi and Zinder has already found alarming rates of malnutrition among children. It concluded that 13.4 percent were acutely malnourished and 2.5 percent severely malnourished. "These figures, recorded four months prior to the onset of the lean season, are comparable to rates commonly seen in countries at war and those observed during the peak of the food crises and at the height of the lean season in Niger," OCHA said. "Rates will certainly continue to rise over the next few months." About US $1 million of the new appeal has been earmarked for fighting malnutrition among children under five and saving young lives. Another $1.5 million is to stop WFP emergency operations already in place from grinding to a halt. "WFP is experiencing serious shortfalls... with only 59 percent of total needs covered by contributions received to date," OCHA said. "If no new donations are confirmed, the operation could face a pipeline break as of June, during the lean season when food aid needs are the highest." The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) wants some $4 million to fund its projects. Half of that money would be spent on distributing cereal and pulse seeds to subsistence farmers. They comprise the majority of Niger's mainly rural population. A further $2 million would buy emergency supplies of food for cattle and other domestic animals to ease tensions between herdsman in search of ever-dwindling pasture and farmers that own the land. This competition for precious grazing land has already led to clashes. Last week 11 people were killed in fighting between nomadic herdsman and local landowners in the drought-hit Dosso district, 140 km southeast of the capital Niamey.