Niger nomads receive food aid
2005-08-10 22:42
Zongon-Bekkel - The free food aid promised by humanitarian organisations for weeks had finally arrived and the news spread like wild fire between nomadic villages in famine-threatened southern Niger.
By first light, Tuareg tribespeople in Zongon-Bekkel in the blighted Dakoro region, about 130km north of the city of Maradi, were on the move.
They were soon joined by people from nearby encampments - the men in long robes and turbans, or large straw hats, the women in finely embroidered dresses - who came by foot, or on donkeys or camels.
In the middle of the village, they split into two groups, the women assembling under an acacia, while the men gathered around another tree next to them.
A stark contrast
The calmness and orderliness contrasted with the often chaotic scenes that have greeted food shipments in other parts of southern Niger, where the United Nations estimates 2.5 million people face serious food shortages.
In Zongon-Bekkel, each person waited their turn in front of the depot managed by Care, the aid group distributing food donated by the Norwegian government.
Nearby, skeletal goats and donkeys grazed fresh green grass that had sprouted after recent welcome rain and guinea fowls scratched at an ant hill.
"Fatima Alhassane," a Care supervisor shouted and a young woman, her arms decorated with coloured bracelets, stepped forward.
Before she could take her ration - 50kg of the staple millet per family - she had to present a paper with her identification number and make a finger-print on a list of names as confirmation she had received the supplies.
If a husband was absent the wife could pick up the food, a Care official said.
Aid arrived in the nick of time
The aid has arrived just in time for the inhabitants of Zongon-Bekkel as their camels have begun to give milk.
Millet, camel and goat milk are staples of the Tuareg diet. The women will make "ichink", a form of pasta, from the donated grain, which is eaten with milk products. That is if they have any productive animals left after endless cycles of drought.
"Out of five camels, the three that have survived can barely stand," said Moussa Albass, who has a family of 13 to feed until the end of September when cereal crops are due to be harvested.
In northern Dakoro, one of Niger's most drought-stricken areas, farmers lost 75% to 95% of their crops in 2004, aid workers say.
"The area has been hit hard," said Aboubacar, the head of the local Care office. "Locusts came from the north and birds came from the east, giving crops no chance at all."
No sooner had the distribution of food aid finished, then the sound of pestles could be heard in the Tuareg villages, grinding the millet into flour for "ichink" for the evening meal.
"Thanks to those who have sent us this aid, we've received it at last," said the chief of the nearby village of Zongon-Alway.