Hunger without borders

As humanitarian and UN agencies scramble to catch up with the food crisis in Niger, neighbouring Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso warn that they will soon face similar crises.

Drought, locusts and flooding have created a shortage of food for about one-third of Niger's 11.7 million residents, including 800 000 children under 5, 32 000 of whom are severely malnourished.

In Mali more than 1 million people face food shortages, Mauritania is close behind with 800 000 residents at risk, and in Burkina Faso 500 000 people are in crisis.

“Mali is just as bad [as Niger] and while the money is finally coming through for Niger, Mali only has 14% of the money it needs,” says Mia Vukojevic of Oxfam Canada.

Aid organizations are particularly concerned because assistance to Niger was so slow in coming. An initial Niger government appeal in November 2004 went largely unheeded. A UN appeal in March raised about US$1 million and a renewed appeal in May netted US$10 million.

The most urgent need now is for medical and nonmedical volunteers, says Marilyn McHarg, Operational Director for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

In mid-August the situation in Niger was “unmanageable,” says McHarg. Personnel admitted 120 people in just 1 night; 7 were dead by morning.

Up to 1600 children arrive weekly at MSF's 6 inpatient and 26 outpatient therapeutic feeding centres. Since January, MSF has treated 16 000 Niger children for severe malnutrition and expects to treat more than 30 000 by year's end.

With no social safety net, “the shortages hit the poorest of the poor,” says Dr. Milton Tectomidis, a Montréal-based nutritional adviser who worked with MSF in Maradi, near the Nigerian border, for 6 weeks. Paradoxically, there is still food in the market, but people can't afford to buy it. This “free market condemns 30% of the population to hunger.”

Niger is the second poorest country in the world according to the UN; more than 60% of its residents live with less than US$1 per day. Both Tectomidis and McHarg worry the problem will worsen. “We need to supplement [feeding] before people need end-stage therapeutic feeding centres,” says McHarg.