Niger Food Crisis May 2010

Niger is on the brink of a severe food emergency that could leave more than half its 14 million population starving and around one million children critically malnourished. Jeremie Ouangrawa, Country Manager for Burkina Faso and Niger recently traveled to the affected region to assess the emerging crisis for Christian Aid. He found that as a consequence of cyclical drought and irregular rainfall leading to poor harvests in 2009, the emerging hunger crisis is expected to affect a staggering 8 million people in Niger significantly more than were affected by a similar emergency that hit the region in 2005.