THE UNITED Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to make an “agonising” decision in Niger, the country worst hit by the West Africa food crisis, and suspend food aid to families with children over the age of two because of a huge funding shortfall.
According to Gianluca Ferrera, deputy country director for the WFP in Niger, acute malnutrition rates stood at 16.7 per cent of children between the ages of three and five years, above the emergency threshold of 15 per cent. In some areas it was as bad as 40 per cent, he said, but because of a lack of funding only families with children under the age of two would receive food over the coming weeks.
“We had planned to distribute 75,000 tonnes of food in August and September but because of limited resources can only hand out 42,000,” he told The Irish Times.
“These people will have to rely on their own coping mechanisms and struggle until the next harvest in October. This is an emergency situation.” Oxfam, which works with the UN to provide food to families in Niger, says that despite repeatedly calling attention to the crisis, not enough is being done to alleviate it.
“No humanitarian agency should be forced into such an impossible position, especially one backed by the entire international community,” said Raphael Sindaye, Oxfam’s deputy regional director in West Africa.
“WFP is being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to direct its limited resources only to families with children under two because it lacks the cash it needs to do the job.” Drought has caused water shortages and led to meagre harvests in Niger, Mali and Chad.
More than 10 million people have been affected, seven million of those in Niger, where the WFP faces a funding shortfall of €74.7 million. “This is an appalling situation. We have known about this crisis for months and yet more than a million people in Niger will continue to starve over the coming weeks and perhaps months,” said Mr Sindaye.