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Millions Face Starvation as Niger Prays in Vain for Rain
Urgent aid is needed to avert a catastrophe in west Africa, reports
To the north of Niger, the creeping Sahara; to the south, oil rich and agriculturally lush Nigeria - this nation straddles the Sahel - dry, hot and cruel. It has suffered catastrophic droughts - 1974, 1984 and 2005. And now, another.
Nomadic tribal chief Ibrahim Mangari walks past a cow that died of hunger, in Gadabeji (AP)
Five times the size of the United Kingdom, Niger is one of the poorest
nations
on earth with child mortality worse than Afghanistan. The absence of
regular
rainfall throughout 2009 has led to poor harvests, lack of grazing for
animals and food reserves exhausted.
Hungry people have started adding "bitter" berries to their diet - this is survival food, normally unpalatable but when starving, the unpalatable becomes welcome - essential.
The tipping point, according to one expert is about a week away - 15 July. That is when the rainy season is expected. But the starving livestock may nibble away whatever green-shoots push through.
Ten leading aid agencies launched a joint appeal yesterday, warning that up to 10 million people across the eastern Sahel, faced acute hunger. The United Nations agrees, it says that the situation is of a magnitude not previously seen. Niger is at the centre of this crisis, with half of its population - 7 million people - going hungry.
The statistics, generally, for this West African country, are overwhelming - less than a third of the people are literate: boys spend on average five years in school; girls, just three. Two-thirds of the people of Niger live beneath the poverty line, 85 per cent on less than $2 - or £1 - a day.
But set that against these great ironies: Niger has uranium aplenty and sells it to France's burgeoning nuclear power industry. The fruits of this trade are hard to see. And there is oil, as in northern neighbour Libya. The partners are the Chinese who will begin production soon. Again, there is little hope the benefits of geological benevolence will bless these beleaguered people. Half of Niger's government budget derives from donor aid. The proceeds of its natural resources will benefit Paris and Beijing before Niamey.
Heading east, into the badlands, we pass acres of planted millet and the occasional pool of orange, muddy water from the recent short, sharp rains. Two glaring truths are evident: the curative, durable work can and is being done; but the vicissitudes of climate makes it all a gamble at the edge of survival.
The "swollen-tummy" syndrome may not have taken root everywhere yet but with real fears that the harvest of 2010 will be a frighteningly small affair. And by then, for thousands, it will be too late.
At a health centre in Goumbi Kano, established by the charity Care International, one of those taking part in the appeal, and part-funded by the Niger government, I meet two women who had walked 8km, with their malnourished babies, to see Dr Moustaphe Chaibou.
Hasana and Maimouna, and babies Farida and Saredja, have been regulars for six weeks.
"I have no milk. When the baby cries, I give her millet," Hasana says.
The babies are showing signs of improvement. They get their regular prescription of a "plumpy nut" product, antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs. Still frighteningly underweight for their age, the 17 -month old was still a babe in arms, the 10-month old like a newborn - both about 20 per cent under the expected weight for their ages.
They left their village after prayers at 5.30am and arrived at opening time, around 8am. Then they headed back before the noon heat.
I asked the doctor what would happen if the rains failed: "Catastrophe, désolé," he said in perfect French.
The drought of 2009 made the September harvest poor - what it yielded was cornered by speculators - poor people had very little to see them through and it is now gone. The "biscuit-barrel" grain stores are empty and have been for weeks.
It has already been a long, hungry wait ameliorated by aid workers, the World Food Fund and other UN agencies. But they have got their sums, by all accounts, badly wrong. They budgeted for 1.7 million hungry souls but find themselves $97 million short . The aid community say the numbers in need are closer to 7 million - and about 3 million are in desperate need now. The target, recently raised, was too low, the budget inadequate and still under-funded.
The people still have until September to wait for handouts and hope.
In 1973 the community of N-Guigmi hardly existed. It now has a population of about 15,000 - people who were driven there from a pastoral existence in the countryside by drought and famine to a town, and a new way of life.
It is a terrifying template for this country unless a lasting solution is found. Those souls gave up waiting and gave up hope.
We meet Ishan Ila Gamma, a widow with eight dependents, in Tajae Nomade village. "I used to have more than 30 animals," she says. "Now I only have one good one remaining. I have been forced to sell all the others at cheap prices. I was forced to go to the city, I beg and sell herbs."
Again, the people of Niger are playing the waiting game - waiting for rain and for an autumn harvest; waiting for the UN and the World Food Programme to get their sums right and attract the donations to pay for the food aid; or waiting for the world to add Niger to the desperate list of Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea.
Ahead the road disappears in a haze of wind-blown sand. But that, I am told, is good. Strong winds, lifting dry sand into the air, often foreshadows rain in the cold African night.
Hope through the haze.
But, alas, the prophesy was only partially true. It rained for 12 minutes. Half an inch below the surface, the earth was bone dry. Another false dawn in the scorching heat.
We drive on and see people tilling the barren soil around the tiny millet plants, laid down by a government that now, at least, admits there is a crisis. They bend in the wind, both plants and farmers. Many were former herds-people but their stock has long since gone, either starved to death or sold at rock-bottom prices for scant sustenance.
Mohammed Gusnam explains: "I used to have 100 animals - now just one. As herders we were like princes, proud. Now the pasture land is disappearing. And the village to me is a like a prison."
But this, for them, is a new life's work and a last throw of the dice. Because, in truth, they can "plough the fields and scatter" as much as they like but unless it rains, it is for nothing: reap, they will not. And, as if to underline that, the sprouts of millet get more stunted as we drive deeper into the dry-lands. They will not flourish even if it were to rain.
"We have gone two weeks without being able to cook anything, we are just waiting and hoping that the children send money," another man whose five children have left their village to seek work and food, says, adding: "The future is in God's hands, we are waiting for God."
The writer is a CARE International ambassador. To contribute to the aid appeal please go to www.careinternational.org.uk
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22 Comments so far
Show AllWe are spending roughly $1 billion per week on our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, plus missions in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. One billion is a thousand millions. Niger needs $100 million to feed is population for one year during the drought. Thus, if we took a holiday from war for one day, we could feed Niger for more than a year. But war for America is our highest priority. Let the people of Niger starve, so that we can kick in more doors in Afghanistan, and fly more drone mission over Pakistan.
Criminal, especially since those that drive this have more money than they or their children could ever really need.
And what do CD lefties do about it? They rant against GM crops which can help fight hunger.
There is enough food already, it is economics that starve people. Being a guinea pig for "substancial equivalents" is just another economic assualt on starving people.
Serious Citizen says it all. Horrific!
Natural resources a plenty.....but no resources for the people.
Since China is soon to be there and they used cloud seeding for the Olympics, couldn't a group use this to at least try to bring rain? ? Or are there no clouds, just dust and death?
I am sorry for anyone who suffers like this. But what confuses me every single time is why anyone with such undependable, desperate resources would continue producing children. One reference in this article refers to a woman with "eight" dependents. Another with "five". Come on? We are well beyond a time when anyone, no matter what demographic or socio-economic background, should be having five or eight children. These days are over. Why aren't we providing birth control in addition to nutritional supplements? (and as far as I'm concerned, birth control should be given freely to everyone in the world with instructions to "use it!").
If population, or rather, overpopulation of the human species isn't addressed soon, and it goes hand in hand with climate change, we can expect this scene will be echoed throughout the world, impacting every other species on earth. And eventually, it will be the root cause of our own extinction.
Two answers, at least: 1) Poverty and high death rates result in people producing more children, not fewer. Low birth rates come with economic development and good health. 2) Birth control requires motivation by both the man and the woman, of course, and it requires knowledge and usually some technology. The Christian right-wing domination of the USA and now Canada, along with the unrelenting efforts of the Catholic Church, all demand that birth control knowledge and birth control technology be denied to poor nations. For the Christians, they see themselves as more moral and more helpful by doing this.
SeriousCitizen, thank you for pointing out the link between poverty, high death rates and more children. You are also right about the role of the Christian right-wing and the Catholic Church in blocking family planning programs. However, Niger is a predominantly Muslim country (over 90%), even though officially, it's "secular" - like Turkey.
It breaks my heart to see these people suffering and starving. In the drought of 2005, in desperation, I called the Niger Section of the World Health Organization at the UN to ask/pressure the WHO to send food to Niger. I spoke to a wonderful man, Ken Cossley, who was sincerely grateful for my call. Fortunately, he was headed to Niger the following week with tons of food. Maybe some concerned readers could telephone the same office today. (I simply called the UN and they were able to transfer my call to the WHO, who transferred me to the Niger office. I was surprised that it was relatively easy to do!)
I spent time living with nomadic Wodaabe’ families in Niger 10 years ago. They slept under the stars and walked 5-20 kilometers a day with their Bororo cows, children, goats, donkeys, and sheep to get water at a "nearby" well. After pulling up water by the bucketsful for their majestic Bororo, they filled goatskins with water which the donkeys carried under their bellies back to their camps for the family.
I have traveled to almost 60 countries and I think they are the most beautiful (inside and outside) people on the planet. I still keep in touch with some of them today.
This situation is tragic. Perhaps a number of telephone calls to people in high places, having the ability to get food to them...might help. Please and thanks.
"It is a terrifying template for this country unless a lasting solution is found."
And what exactly might that solution be? The writer makes no suggestions aside from more free food. What size population should a country with periodic drought be expected to sustain by means of agriculture? There is virtually no limit to the number of people who could live there if they were given adequate food during the periodic droughts. It is a perplexing question.
There is a simple answer to the problems of Niger - the strategic use of the vast aquifier that exists under the sahara Desert. In the same way as Israel and Egypt have demonstrated by irrigation and techniques Niger and other poor African countries can cultivate crops throughout the year. BUT if there is success the 'cash cow' from child sponsors and others would not sound so convincing if there was success, no famine and improvement to their lives NGO's maximise the famine. drought and disease to highlight the plight of these poor but beatiful people whose gentility will always touch me Six visits in less than two years pse see www.questzouera.com give them hope and direction not hand outs CHANGE the conception of NGO's and aid agencies with a coordinated approach to aid that is not centered on the individual charity/NGO's sel interests.
Michael Maren spent several decades in
Africa working for organizations similar
to CARE. He wrote a book on his experiences
and the larger issues involved:
http://www.netnomad.com/might.html
I suspect the cognitive dissonance level may
be a bit high though for those who have bought
into the aid agencies' talking points
relentlessly "sold" by the power of
images (whose reality he also deconstructs).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFCd1Bcghs&feature=related
I read the posting suggested below http://www.netnomad.com/might.html.
As a former Peace Corp Volunteer, we had similar critical debates about NGOs and AID agencies. Africans I spoke to said they felt German agencies were more effective than USAID or Peace Corps. However, a German NGO worker said she admired the Peace Corps because volunteers actually lived in the villages and got to know local people…even though their projects may not have always been effective. One of the best aspects of the Peace Corps is that it changes a PC volunteer’s world view forever.
As trite as it sounds, I think an individual positive action to reduce poverty is to travel to poorer countries and spend tourist money there. Stay in guesthouses owned by locals who employ locals. Buy locally made crafts/products, shop at local markets, and try not to be too aggressive in bargaining. During my textile journey throughout West Africa, I came with a meager graduate student budget of $15000 in my pocket, and at the end of my 12 month journey, that money was circulating throughout Africa instead of America. It was a drop in the bucket, but at least it was a drop.
Personally, I confronted the face of selfishness in my mirror many times during that year and it was really ugly. I continue to travel, in an effort to change that face, and loosen the grip of the almighty dollar on my spirit. It has helped, and I have met wonderful people wherever I go.
Paul Theroux envisages a more active role for Africans
in solving their own problems in his book 'Dark Star Safari'.
Unfortunately, as Michael Maren also points out in his
book the ugly politics of aid agencies and Western governments
rule out any such solutions. Here's an excerpt from Theroux's
travelogue:
Even the most prosperous towns in this part of Kenya had the bright
signboards and relief agencies, the offices and supply depots of people
doling out advice and food and condoms. The merchandise of the gang of
virtue. This was true in Kericho, its large leafy tea estate softening
its green hills and valleys. Maybe such places attracted missionaries
and aid workers because they were so pleasant to live in. Maybe
communications were better here than in the remote bush. Whenever I saw
a town that looked tidy and habitable I saw the evidence of foreign
charities: Oxfam, Project Hope, the Hunger Project, Food for Africa,
SOS Children's Village, Caritas, and many other with saintly names and
a new white Land Rover or Land Cruiser parked in front.
As this was a coffee growing area, any of these vehicles could have
belonged to the satirical figure of Dickens's Mrs. Jellyby and her
African project. She had said, "We hope by this time next year to have
from a hundred and fifty to two hundred healthy families cultivating
coffee and educating the natives of Borrioboola-Gha."
Mine is not a complaint, merely an observation, because hearing horror
stories about uneducated starving Africans, most Americans or Europeans
become indignant and say, "Why doesn't someone do something about it?"
Much was apparently being done—more than I had ever imagined. Since
the Kenya government cared so little about the well-being of its
people, concerns such as health and education had been taken up by
sympathetic foreigners. The charities were well established. Between
the Bata shoe store and the local Indian shop you would find the office
of World Vision or Save the Children—"Blurred Vision" and "Shave the
Children" to the cynics. These organizations had grown out of disaster
relief agencies but had become multinational institutions, permanent
fixtures of welfare and services.
I wondered, really wondered, why this was all a foreign effort, why
Africans were not involved in helping themselves. And also, since I had
been a volunteer teacher myself, why, after forty years, had so little
progress been made?
An entire library of worthy books describe at best the uselessness, at
worst the serious harm, brought about by aid agencies. Some of the
books are personal accounts, others are scientific and scholarly. The
findings are the same.
"Aid is not help" and "aid does not work" are two of the conclusions
reached by Graham Hancock in his Lords of Poverty: The Power,
Prestige and Corruption of the International Aid Business (1989), a
well-researched account of wasted money. Much of Hancock's scorn is
reserved for the dubious activities of the World Bank. "Aid projects
are an end in themselves," Michael Maren writes in The Road to Hell:
The Damaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity
(1997). One of Maren's targets is Save the Children, which he sees
as a monumental boondoggle. Both writers report from experience, having
spent many years in Third World countries on aid projects.
While these writers are kinder to volunteers in disaster relief than to
highly paid bureaucrats in institutional charities, both of them also
assert that all aid is self-serving, large-scale famines are welcomed
as a "growth opportunity," and the advertising to stimulate donations
for charities is little more than "hunger porn".
"Here is a rule of thumb you can safely apply wherever you may wander
in the Third World," Hancock writes. "If a project is funded by
foreigners it will typically also be designed by foreigners and
implemented by foreigners using foreign equipment procured in foreign
markets."
As proof of that rule of thumb, the most salutary and least cited book
about development in Africa is an Italian study, Guidelines for the
Application of Labor-Intensive Technologies (1994). Revolutionary
in its simplicity, it advocates the use of African labor to solve
African problems. After describing the many social and economic
advantages of employing local people, who would work with their hands
to build dams, roads, sewer systems, and watercourses, the authors,
Sergio Polizzotti and Daniele Fanciullacci, discuss the constraints
imposed by donors. Donors specify that purchases of machinery have to
be made in the donor country, or that bids be restricted to firms in
the donor country, or that a time limit be placed on the scheme, which
encourages the tendency toward large contracts and heavy spending on
equipment." Labor-intensive projects are few in Africa because so much
donor aid is self-interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Safari-Overland-Capetown/dp/0618446877
There's a saying that goes something like "a pair of helping hands do more than a hundred praying lips" (or something like that). Perhaps, if these people stopped praying, put their hands together and started building a damn to collect rain water during the rainy season, they wouldn't have to go on their knees and pray to the invisible to solve their problems. After all, isn't there another saying that goes something like "god helps those who help themselves"?
I totally have no sympathy for people who engage in delusions, fantasy and superstition instead of doing something about their situation. I feel a great deal for these people as I know all too well how and why they are at that point in life, however, religion crap ain't the answer to their problem or anybody else's.
I can understand your frustration and anger but this should in my opinion be directed to the NGO's and other aid agencies all with their own agenda traversing the country in Toyota landcruisers.Most of the UK based NGO's are nett benificiaries of donations made by UK based child sponsors. These sponsors have little idea how their money is spent and it is very clear to me that a far greater deal of accountability is required. As a visiter to Niger some six times in less than two years to undertake humanitarian relief - ( Yes self funded with some help on projects) I feel that I am better placed than many to give an opinion. My last trip in June 2010 was a real eyeopener. The complete absence of a constructed co-ordinated attempt to provide sustainability to these beautiful people is in itself a crime on Humanity. I have demonstrated that they can grow crops outside the 'window' that accompanies the all too short rainy season pse see www.questzouera.com this is a testimony to their hard work WHEN given direction and hope.We need a new strategy to encompass and use the vast sums of money donated by families and individuals in UK in the belief that this is making a difference to the lives of others alas it is wasted on 4x4's, inadequate organisation and failed policies give them HOPE
handaga- hope, it's nice to hear from someone who's actually been Niger. So I'm sure you'd have seen the drought (or drought-like) conditions and the desertification. While I do not know the specific activities of international aid agencies in Niger itself, I have heard about some of them donating livestock such as cattle and sheep to poor, landless people, and I have argued against it in one of the stories here around a Christmas time, because I felt that more grazing would only aggravate the conditions there. Growing crops and arresting the spread of the desert or desertification has to be at the top of the agenda. There must be ways to stop and reverse the spread of desertification. Very likely, they'll be extremely challenging and completely beyond the scope of any one aid agency - perhaps requiring the intervention of the government or even more than one government.
You mentioned "co-ordinated attempt to provide sustainability". Yes - sustainability has to be at the top of the planning process, even though it may not always present the easiest of solutions, especially for people under pressure to show statistics of "success".
Hi Yes, its really that simple, in the village that I and others support we are demonstrating that they will help themselves nearly 400 metres of trenches lined with a plastic membrane have been dug by hand 500 lotre water butts positioned at the centre of a 'X' formation and now planted with seeds. They lovingly care for the new plants and can grow these all year round. But certain NGO's make us aware of their plight and extract from conscience stricken members of the public in UK vast sums of money and there is little to show for it. Simple maths in my village 300+ child sponsors each donating £16.50 per month ( minimum ) x 12 months + £50,000 per year. They have been on the ground some 8+ years and there income stream from this one village is in my estimation approaching £300.000 !!!!! There is little to show for this and thats the real tragedy - exploitation by an NGO, did you look at the website ? regards