See also:
» 27.09.2010 - Aid back to basics: Cash handouts in Niger
» 09.07.2010 - Again, aid to Niger's hungry comes too late
» 21.04.2010 - Hunger aid to Niger, Chad boosted
» 06.04.2010 - US$132 million needed for Niger's hungry
» 22.03.2010 - Niger food crisis growing
» 11.02.2010 - International aid appeal launched for Niger
» 22.04.2008 - Food crisis alerted in West Africa
» 26.09.2006 - Cholera epidemic follows floods











China wholesale online through DHgate.com


Houlihan's coupons


Finn autentiske matoppskrifter fra hele verden på Verdensmat.no:
Gazpacho Børek Kartoffelsalat Taboulé Gulasj Albóndigas Cevapi Rougaille Japrak sarma Zwiebelbrot Klopse Giouvetsi Paella Pljeskavica Pica pau Pulpo a la gallega Flammkuchen Langosj Tapenade Chatsjapuri Pasulj Lassi Kartoffelpuffer Tortilla Raznjici Knödel Lentejas Bœuf bourguignon Korianderchutney Brenneslesuppe Proia Sæbsi kavurma Sardinske calamares


Autentiske matoppskrifter fra hele verden finner du på Verdensmat.no:
Réunion Portugal Aserbajdsjan Serbia Tyskland Seychellene Bosnia Spania Libanon Belgia India Kroatia Hellas Italia Ungarn Komorene Georgia Mauritius Østerrike Romania Frankrike


Niger | Mauritania | Mali | Burkina Faso
Agriculture - Nutrition

Children at risk once again in hungry Sahel, says UN

afrol News / IRIN, 28 March - Hundreds of thousands of children could go hungry yet again this year across the arid Sahel, one of the world’s poorest regions, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are most affected by the current drought.

“The situation is serious, the coming weeks will be critical,” said the West Africa director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Herve Ludovic de Lys.

The UN is appealing for US $91.9 million to help some five million people at risk of going hungry in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Media images of emaciated children in Niger last year shocked the world, bringing a surge of support for a country hit by poor harvests, a rare but devastating locust invasion and soaring food prices - all amid chronic poverty.

But despite a good harvest late in 2005, people in Niger and across the Sahel face more months of empty stomachs from now until October/November 2006, the lean months ahead of the harvests when granaries tend to run empty, UN officials said.

Last year’s food crisis forced farming families into heavy debt they are still struggling to repay, while prices of basic foodstuffs remain high. In Niger a sack of millet borrowed in late spring of 2005 for seed or for food required up to three sacks as repayment by October of the same year.

And children are the most at risk, with malnutrition partly to blame for the deaths of over 300,000 children - just over half of the child deaths in the region, said Theophane Nikyema, deputy director of the regional office of the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

In recent months UNICEF has been conducting nutrition assessments across the Sahel to help forecast the 2006 picture. Tuesday’s new appeal to international donors comes on top of a request for $152 million in the original UN Consolidated Appeal for West Africa, bringing the total to $244 million.

The deputy director of the World Food Programme’s regional office, Christine Van Nieuwenhuyse, said the funds would be used not only to help feed an estimated five million people who could go hungry, but also to bolster nutritional centres, local cereal banks and help provide long-term solutions to chronic hunger.

“We must have long-term solutions,” she told a media conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar. “Children who are malnourished carry the consequence for years and malnutrition feeds poverty, which in turn feeds malnutrition.”

In a separate statement, Oxfam said that currently one in three people in Niger do not have enough to eat and that this figure could double in six months failing an international response.

“While the emergency response is imperative, there must be a true and sustained commitment to long-term engagement,” said Natasha Quist, Oxfam GB’s West Africa director. “Without it, the people of the Sahel will remain among the world’s most vulnerable, marginalised and perpetually at risk of food crises.”


- Create an e-mail alert for Niger news
- Create an e-mail alert for Mauritania news
- Create an e-mail alert for Mali news
- Create an e-mail alert for Burkina Faso news
- Create an e-mail alert for Agriculture - Nutrition news


 
    Printable version


On the Afrol News front page now

Rwanda
Rwanda succeeds including citizens in formal financial sector

afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.

Famine warning: "South Sudan is imploding"

afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
Guinea
Panic in West Africa after Ebola outbreak in Guinea

afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia tightens its already strict anti-gay laws

afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia plans Africa's biggest dam

afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.



front page | news | countries | archive | currencies | news alerts login | about afrol News | contact | advertise | español 

©  afrol News. Reproducing or buying afrol News' articles.

   You can contact us at mail@afrol.com