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Niger President Denies Famine
The Guardian UK
Wednesday 10 August 2005
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A woman carries buckets to collect water near Tahoua, northen Niger.
(Photo: Issouf Sanogo / AFP / Getty) | |
The president of Niger has denied reports that the country is facing a famine, saying his people "look well-fed."
President Mamdou Tandja admitted that a devastating locust invasion and poor rains had created a food shortage, but said that was not unusual for Niger or the entire Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara desert.
"We are experiencing, like all the countries in the Sahel, a food crisis due to the poor harvest and the locust attacks of 2004," Mr. Tandja said during an interview with the BBC yesterday. "The people of Niger look well-fed, as you can see."
Mr. Tandja said if the food crisis was serious, shanty towns would form around the big towns, people would flee to neighbouring countries and street beggars would become more prevalent. But he insisted this had not happened.
The UN says the locust invasion and the drought have left 3.6 million people in Niger facing serious food shortages. It estimates that 32,000 children are at risk of severe malnutrition and could face death without urgent food and medical treatment.
But Mr. Tandja claimed reports of the looming food crisis in the west African country were "false propaganda" that had been used by the UN, aid agencies and opposition parties for political and economic gain.
"It is only by deception that such agencies receive funding," Mr. Tandja said.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) denied that their reports had been exaggerated.
"We have not spoken about famine but about pockets of severe malnutrition," said Greg Barrow, a spokesman for WFP.
He agreed that Niger often faced hunger but said last year's harvests were "particularly bad."
The WFP says it has received around $23m (£13m) in donations, but $34m is still needed to fund the programme.
Mr. Tandja questioned why $45m had been promised to Niger, but the country had only received $2.5m.
Mr. Barrow said that the WFP was accountable for all its funds to donor governments but pointed out that not all aid money was channelled through the governments of recipient countries.
On Monday, the WFP made its first delivery - a month's supply of cereals, vegetable oil and other items - to the village of Tolkobey, about 55 miles south of Niamey, Niger's capital. Previously the aid agency has distributed food for severely malnourished children at special centres.
A second round of rations is due in September to help villagers until the harvest in October. "This marks the beginning of distributions on a large scale," the WFP said.
Mr. Tandja said his government had subsidised food prices since last year in an effort to ease the crisis.
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