UN aid to Niger 'inadequate'
2005-08-23 11:01
Nairobi - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to begin a visit to Niger on Tuesday, where up to three million people are at risk from food shortages, a UN statement said.
The visit is aimed at focusing international attention on the situation in the Sahel region of West Africa, where a combination of drought and locusts ruined last year's harvest and have led to severe difficulties in countries such as Niger.
Annan was scheduled to meet Niger President Tandja Mamadou in Zinder, about 750km east of the capital Niamey, before meeting government officials and UN representatives in the capital itself.
Not enough food
On the eve of the visit, the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), criticised the UN food distribution efforts as not reaching those that need them most, saying the UN response to the crisis in the region remains "inadequate".
UN aid workers said they could have averted the worst effects of the crisis if donor countries had responded to earlier repeated appeals for finance.
The United Nations World Food Programme began mass free food distribution this month in an effort to feed to more than 2.5 million people in Niger.
Niger is the worst affected of a group of West African countries that have suffered worse food shortages than usual this year, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania.
- SAPA