NIAMEY, Niger — They are simple words humanitarian workers in Africa use often but dared not speak in this impoverished nation: hunger, starvation. And definitely not famine.
For years, President Mamadou Tandja denied there was any food crisis in Niger, even when images were broadcast of skeletal children too weak to brush away flies. Now that the military has ousted Tandja, aid agencies are speaking out, with good reason: The country is facing its worst food shortage in years.
“A window has finally opened, and we need to take advantage of it,” said Anne Boher, Niger spokeswoman for the U.N. Children’s Fund.
With food supplies rapidly dwindling, humanitarian agencies must prepare and mobilize funds, she said.
“And to do that, we need to talk about what’s really happening,” she said. “It’s urgent that we act now.”
Nearly half of Niger’s 15 million people are facing food shortages this year because poor rainfall has thinned harvests, according to a leaked government report that said nearly 3 million of those people are expected to face “extreme” shortfalls.
The U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which monitors food security, also predicts there will be “a serious food security emergency” in Niger this year. The number of malnourished children being admitted to feeding centers was 60 percent greater in January than in the previous year, the group said.
Five years ago, Niger faced a similar crisis after crops were devastated first by locusts, then by drought, leaving a third of the country facing starvation. Foreign governments and aid groups rushed in food, although the U.N. said the crisis did not reach famine proportions.
Media coverage of the episode enraged Tandja, who lashed out at humanitarian agencies. His government felt humiliated, Boher said.
“They thought people were trying to make it look like it was their fault that children were dying,” she said.
Several aid groups were expelled.
Since then, humanitarian workers have tiptoed around discussions with government officials on the sensitive topics of food and nutrition, even when they concerned children.
