World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

More than six million people in Niger need immediate help as the country faces a persistent food crisis due to drought and a number of other factors, the UN and humanitarian group Oxfam said Monday. (..) The government in Niamey said last month that the country will face a cereal shortage this year of 692,000 tonnes, or 14 per cent of the needs of its population of 15 million.

In Niger, efforts to prevent a major food crisis are underway, after the government declared that an estimated 5 million people, or one third of the population, could be at risk from shortages. “Niger is in a situation of crisis” says Denise Brown, head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in Niger. “Women and children are suffering the most – people simply cannot get enough food to put on the table.”

No babies cry and the children are not even curious about the presence of strangers. “It is hunger and they are shy - they are not used to strangers,” explained one of the mothers, who is among a couple of thousand Malians who have crossed into southwestern Niger and sought refuge in the windswept village of Gaoudel, Ayorou District, after fleeing clashes between Malian government troops and Tuareg rebels.

The international community must urgently aid tens of thousands of people who have fled fighting in northern Mali and prevent their displacement from burdening host communities already hit by food insecurity, an official of the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said. (..) More than 55,000 people have fled Mali into neighbouring Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso while another 60,000 are internally displaced within Mali since fighting erupted, the official said.

The United Nations is warning of a new food crisis in Africa, with droughts and poor harvests leaving more than 10 million people in need of assistance. Niger, Burkino Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Cameroon and Nigeria have all declared states of emergency in relation to the drought.

More than 20,000 Malians are now in the border region of Tillaberi, many in areas where villagers are facing severe food insecurity and malnutrition. (..) Niger’s ‘hungry season’, usually April to November, sees malnutrition rates rise - especially in young children - with a peak in June. But medics at Tillaberi’s intensive therapeutic feeding centre expect the worst to hit as early as April this year.

With tears now rolling down her cheeks Dije says, "I don't have any milk. I haven't eaten lately. (..) She knows what every breastfeeding mother knows -- if you don't eat, you don't make milk. But she knows something mothers in developed countries don't: If you don't make milk, your baby dies. (..) CARE started a cash-for-work program in partnership with the World Food Programme, to help families buy food.

The world needs to act together and act now to prevent the drought and severe food shortages in the Sahel turning into famine, an emergency meeting at the World Food Programme was told on Wednesday.

The world needs to act together and act now to prevent the drought and severe food shortages in the Sahel turning into famine, an emergency meeting at the World Food Programme was told on Wednesday.

Some 12,000 Malians have fled fighting in the towns of Ménaka and Anderamboucane in northern Mali and reached already food-insecure villages around Tillabéri in western Niger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niger’s capital, Niamey. (..) Niger’s Tillabéri region has been hardest hit by the 2011 drought and poor harvest and many inhabitants are already facing severe food insecurity, according to the government and aid agencies.