UN needs more money for Niger
2005-08-04 09:39
United Nations - The United Nations increased its appeal to over $75m to help 2.5 million people in desperate need of food in Niger and said more money will be needed to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the West African nation.
The UN World Food Programme more than tripled the amount of emergency aid it is seeking for southern Niger - the epicentre of the crisis - from $16m six months ago to $57.6m .
"With the situation deteriorating over recent weeks, our main objective is to save lives," James Morris, executive director of the Rome-based agency said in a statement. "Whole families are suffering because of a desperate shortage of food, which has forced them to eat just one meal a day of maize, leaves or wild fruits."
The UN Children's Fund also increased its appeal to $14m and deputy director Rima Salah was due to arrive in Niger on Wednesday for a first-hand look at the needs of hundreds of thousands of youngsters suffering from severe and moderate malnutrition.
On Tuesday, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation appealed for $4m to provide Niger's farmers with seeds for the next planting season and to replenish the livestock of families who have lost or been forced to sell their animals.
The combined appeals totalled $75.6m.
Two weeks ago, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Niger was facing "an acute humanitarian crisis" in which children were dying because the world community ignored UN appeals for urgent aid.
He said 2.5 million people desperately needed food, including 800 000 malnourished children. Some 150 000 of those children will die soon "unless we really get to step up our operation," he warned.
The landlocked country of nearly 12 million people, one of the poorest in the world, was devastated by an invasion of locusts that ate everything green last year and was then hit by drought that lasted until early July.
The first UN appeal for help in November got almost no response.
"This was a desperately needed wake-up call, but the response we have received so far is encouraging," said Morris. "We can still save lives."
The World Food Program said its previous request for $16m has now been fully funded.
With money from its new appeal, WFP said it will target 2.5 million people facing severe hunger in the south and provide extra food to children and mothers until the end of the lean season.
But the failure of donors to respond quickly has significantly raised the cost of helping Niger.
When the first UN appeal was made, only $1 a day for each needy person would have helped solve the food crisis, the United Nations has said. Now $80 is needed each day per person because it is more expensive to treat people once they are weakened by malnutrition, officials say.
- AP