Food Crisis in Niger
NY Times Article Article by Adam Nossiter. Photos by Jane Hahn Click here to see the slide show
Niger is facing a food crisis, a grimly familiar predicament in a vast desert country with an explosive birthrate and rudimentary agriculture. Rains and crops failed last year — rainfall was about 70 percent below normal in the region — and now half the population of 15 million faces food shortages, officials say. Thus it was in 2005, 1985 and 1974.
Is the US giving them food as we speak? I want to know.
I just found this article online. The World Food Program (United Nations) is providing aid to Niger.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q3GX20100427
“Holmes responded: “We do not have a miracle solution but we’ll do our best.” The U.N. is running a food-for-work program for villagers who remain, paying them for clearing the main road threatened by the encroaching desert.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said less than a third of the $190 million it is seeking from international donors to respond to the crisis has been raised.”
