A Silent Tragedy

MISERY in Niger, already hit by a serious famine caused by failed harvests, was compounded earlier this year as floods swept across parts of the country.



 In 2009, harvest production in the landlocked West African nation was down by a third, largely because of meagre rains, and the floods threatened to destroy much of this year’s crop.



 Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. An estimated one in six children die before their fifth birthday, while four out of five people are dependent on the land for their livelihood.



 Modibo Traore, head of the United Nation’s humanitarian office in Niger, said every part of the country – including the capital Niamey – was affected by the flooding.



 “Up to now we have more than 200,000 people who have been affected by the floods,” he told United Nations radio at the end of August. “All families are staying in public infrastructures such as schools.”



 Mr Traore said the heavy rains had already killed more than 100,000 cattle in a country dependent on subsistence agriculture, increasing fears the dead animals would contaminate drinking water. But he added that the situation may well worsen as the rains were likely to last for another month.



 The floods, which hit many parts of West and Central Africa in August, left 100,000 people homeless as the river Niger, which flows through nine West African nations, reached its highest level in more than 80 years.





Urgent food assistance





 The floods exacerbated a situation in which some 8 million people – half the population – were already suffering. The European Commission estimated 3 million needed “urgent food assistance”. The UN World Food Program said it aimed to provide enriched feeding programs for almost 1 million malnourished children under the age of two, while helping to feed nearly 8 million affected people.



 Swathes of water swept away homes, inundating fields, drowning wildstock and destroying crops. Aid agencies warned the flooding was making it difficult to deliver aid to remote areas.



 It was also feared the risk of water-borne diseases would rise, especially among the infirm and young, already weakened by malnutrition.



 With the British charity Save the Children warning some 400,000 children were at risk of acute malnutrition, the World Food Programme said a funding shortfall meant its food distribution would only benefit two in five of those in need.





Forced to beg





 The stories of those impacted by the double disaster were heart-rending. When the harvests failed, Hadja – who looks after eight children – was one of a group of women who left their southern village to beg for food in Maradi – Niger’s third-largest city. Sometimes, she said, she made 400CFA (about €0.6, or $0.7) a day.



 “I’ve had to come to town because we don’t have any food,” she told the BBC. “The harvest only lasted four or five months. We’ve had to buy food since then.



 “I had to take the children out of school. We don’t have enough money for food so I can’t afford to send them to school.



 “We have had many bad years… The last harvest was really bad. If we have a good year we can produce 80 bots (about 1,000kg). This year we only produced 15 bots.”



 Tempers frayed as long queues of hungry people crowded around feeding centres in the sweltering heat. Local hospitals were being overcrowded with malnourished children, with some becoming so crowded that as many as three children were sharing each bed.



  



Major appeals





 As the crisis mounted, charities such as Save the Children and Oxfam launched multi-million pound appeals, with Save the Children saying 400,000 of the country’s children were at risk of dying of starvation.



 Soaring food prices left many people unable to afford to buy even staple grains like millet. Many were reduced to eating leaves, herbs, and what is known locally as ‘anza’, a dried lemon-looking fruit which has long-term, dangerous side effects.



 Lisa Washington-Sow, who has been Catholic Relief Services’ country representative for Niger since the midst of Niger’s 2005 drought and famine, said the recent famine was already worse than the previous one.



 Grazing land has diminished because of the drought, causing problems for communities that rely on such land to feed cattle or other livestock. Such land “is very critical for Niger as it is directly linked to general food security,” Lisa said.



 With many saying the crisis is worse than Niger’s drought of 2005 that caused widespread suffering, the UN’s Khardiata Lo Ndiaye said, “The magnitude of this crisis has not been seen before.”



 Others were forced to sell their donkeys, goats and chickens to get money to buy food. One local elder, Musa Haj Haroon, told the BBC that his only asset was his livestock, which he was gradually being forced to sell, warning that others were doing the same.



 “If my livestock runs out we will have to leave this village, there is no other solution. And if the rains are bad again this year everyone will go… and this will become a deserted village.”



 Some would take great risks to walk huge distances to reach major cities such as Niamey, but they found little solace in the capital of the world’s least developed country.



 Save the Children’s country director, Ibrahim Fall, said the situation was a “silent” crisis, ignored by much of the world’s media.



 “We’re facing real starvation,” he told the BBC. “It is happening already. Children are starving. Money is not coming at the speed and the volume that we need, which is why we want to make this appeal to raise the level of this emergency from being silent to something much louder.”





Political instability





 Sitting on the edge of the Sahara desert, landlocked Niger was historically a gateway between North and sub-Saharan Africa. It was colonised by the French at the end of the 19th Century, and since independence in 1960 has been wracked by political instability. It has a basic health system, little primary education and one of the lowest literacy rates in the world.



 Although it banned the centuries-old practice of slavery in 2003, anti-slavery organisations say thousands still live in subjugation, and aid agencies say most children are working by the age of 14.



 Long governed by strict military rulers, in 2010 incumbent Presidentm Mamadou Tandja – who had come to power in 1999 after the introduction of a new constitution providing for presidential and legislative multi-party elections – attempted to stay in power by changing the constitution to extend his rule last year, only to be ousted by a coup in February.



 Tuareg nomads seeking greater autonomy for the north have been waging a low-level war. The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) demanded greater autonomy and a larger share of uranium revenue, although after talks in Libya in 2009 the group committed itself to a “total and comprehensive” peace.





Double disaster





 With its agricultural industry threatened by the encroaching desert, the country was bargaining on a rich supply of minerals such as oil and gold to boost its fortunes, especially as its main export, uranium, was prone to price fluctuations.



 An army officer, Salou Djibo, was named head of the military junta, promising to return Niger to democracy. Mahamadou Danda was installed as prime minister, leading an interim government, and while the coup meant Niger was expelled from the African Union, the international community urged coup leaders to hold fresh elections as soon as possible.



 In a bid to alleviate the crisis, the EU agreed to release €15 million ($19 million roughly) in food aid.



 EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the funds – which came on top of €25 million for humanitarian aid already allocated in 2010 – “could free up to 700,000 families from the risk of hunger and famine”.



 Struck by the double disaster of flood and famine, it was clear that Niger and its suffering people needed all the help they could get.