Save the Children warns of food shortages in Niger.
A poor harvest has led to food shortages and rising prices. it has launched an appeal for £30 million because Niger already has one of the worst child survival rates in the world. One in six children die under the age of five and the majority of deaths are caused by malnutrition.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Save-the-Childr...
Save the Children's humanitarian director Gareth Owen said: "The forecasts from Niger make for grim reading, and we know that children are always the first to suffer the deadly effects of hunger and malnutrition. If we act now we can prevent the needless deaths of thousands of children, but the window of opportunity to avert this crisis is closing fast" he said to the BBC.
The charity said six million people, half of them children, were at risk after a poor harvest led to food shortages and rising prices.Almost 400,000 children in Niger are at risk of dying of starvation over the summer. Save the Children is calling for urgent donations to its £7 million emergency fundraising appeal for the country.
This follows a call for support for children in Mauritania last year. Increasing terrorist attacks and clashes with the army increases insecurity and displaces populations and contributes to the destabalisation of the region. In 2010 Save the children launched a similar appeal for Niger as drought and crop failure is an ongoing problem. It describes how children as young as five were trekking hundreds of miles to beg in the streets of the capital Niamey. Niger is the poorest country in Africa and does not have the resources to care for the majority of its people. This situation is likely to increse immigration pressures on Niger's neighbours in the Maghreb as people try to flee the famine.
The charity said six million people, half of them children, were at risk after a poor harvest led to food shortages and rising prices.Almost 400,000 children in Niger are at risk of dying of starvation over the summer. Save the Children is calling for urgent donations to its £7 million emergency fundraising appeal for the country.
This follows a call for support for children in Mauritania last year. Increasing terrorist attacks and clashes with the army increases insecurity and displaces populations and contributes to the destabalisation of the region. In 2010 Save the children launched a similar appeal for Niger as drought and crop failure is an ongoing problem. It describes how children as young as five were trekking hundreds of miles to beg in the streets of the capital Niamey. Niger is the poorest country in Africa and does not have the resources to care for the majority of its people. This situation is likely to increse immigration pressures on Niger's neighbours in the Maghreb as people try to flee the famine.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Save-the-Childr...