PHOTO: “A child suffering from severe malnutrition is treated at the Médecins Sans Frontieres centre in Maradi, Niger.” (The Guardian).
“”We are having now an acute humanitarian crisis in Niger in which children are dying as we speak, We could have prevented this and the world community didn’t.” — U.N. Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland.
French blogger Valerie has been writing to me, asking me to publicize this. Last week, I wrote about her and the U.N.’s efforts to alleviate this horrific crisis which, by the way, extends through several more African countries this summer due to drought and locusts. Valerie recommends contributions to Medecins San Frontieres.
“The UN first appealed for assistance for Niger in November and got almost no response.”
MORE BELOW:
From The Guardian article today:
Western countries were today accused of failing to deliver on aid promises as famine in Niger put the lives of 2.5 million people, including 800,000 children, at risk.
Food supplies, already low after a drought and locust plague swept through the west African country last year, had reached critical level, aid agencies said. The world’s second least developed country was suffering “an acute humanitarian crisis”, the United Nations said.
Amid a surge in the number of children dying from malnutrition and people arriving at food centres, aid organisations warned there was a gulf between the pledges of political leaders and the amount of support arriving on the ground.
“We have been trying to raise the profile of a developing crisis in west Africa since last October,” said Oxfam’s regional humanitarian co-ordinator, Nick Ireland. “It’s been clear since then that there would be a food shortage this summer but it has been painfully slow.
We have been hearing promises from the G8 leaders at Gleneagles about making the fight against poverty more important and at the same time there is a famine across the Sahel. People are very slow to respond.”
Mr Ireland said some aid was starting to arrive and Oxfam had had teams in the worst-hit areas since the end of June.
“In all frankness, the money should have been there four or five months ago to give aid agencies the chance to do this properly. We are really at the 11th hour.”
The UN first appealed for assistance for Niger in November and got almost no response. Another appeal for $16m (£9.2m) in March got about $1m. The latest appeal on May 25 for $30m has received about $10m but “it’s still too little”, the UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said. …
ORGANIZATIONS IN NIGER, besides the U.N.:
Sadly they have no oil reserves. If they did we’d be happy to liberate them.
Just yellow cake. Sigh. Too bad it’s not edible.
Steven, I should link your diary — or do you have its link handy? It was such a great tongue-in-cheek piece.
No the subject here is too serious. I don’t mind being snarky at the GOP’s expense, but this sort of suffering deserves to be comedy free imo.
Cross-posted at DKos.
The combination of drought, insects, and deforestation is taking a terrible toll on the Sahel, as this diary makes abundantly clear.
If I remember correctly, the national symbol of Niger is the giraffe. Yet there are no more giraffes in the country. Why? Because the trees are all gone–gone to firewood. The countryside has been devastated; wildlife can’t live there… and humans hardly can, today.
So we from the outside should step in and make sure there is enough to eat for now.
But what about for next year, and the year after?
When I first went to West Africa in 1985, I arrived on the heels of famine. A great deal of aid has poured in since. But there is famine again.
That part of the failure to stop famine that can be traced to us has much to do with money. Money has not solved the problems of West Africa, nor will it. Simply increasing aid money is not the answer (though the money is certainly needed in crisis situations). Why not? Because the vast majority of it is lost to corruption. I remember a man in a village near where I served in Peace Corps: He was the only fat man in the village and he owned a brand-new motorcycle. Why? Because he was “administering” an aid program, one of these, like Save the Children,” that claimed to be providing a certain amount a day to help specific children. Those children in that village? They got nothing–“Le Gros” just got fatter.
What can we do? After giving what we can to emergency aid programs, we can support programs such as those sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee that work on development with little reliance on money.
One of the biggest problems in the Sahel is deforestation. The impact of the loss of trees is incalculable. But it costs very little to provide seeds and a few tools… and the impact is years away, so can’t become an example of wonderful accomplishments right now. It also costs very little to show people how to build mud stoves that are more efficient that the three-rock stoves they’ve been using. Such stoves should be everywhere by now, but they aren’t (in part because people haven’t been convinced that the saving in wood is a worthwhile trade-off for the loss of evening light from the fire–but that’s another topic).
Also, these and the other development projects that could be effective can only work if the Africans themselves are behind them. We outsiders can’t just come in and say, “Do this, it will be good for you.” We need to spend the time necessary for learning about the culture first, then working with those people who recognize the need to convince others. But that, again, takes time. And we outsiders want to see results right now, not ten years from now.
The kid in that photo is about the same age as my kid.
It literally makes me ill to think about my little girl slowly starving to death like that. I wonder how that kid’s father feels.