Morocco has begun airlifting rice, powdered milk and other food stuffs to Niger as part of an effort to ease hunger pangs afflicting one in four of the West African state’s 12-million people, a government official said on Friday.
Doctor Seydou Bakary, manager of the national food-crisis cell, said that over the past four days, 100 tonnes of rice, 55 tonnes of powdered milk, 20 tonnes of pasta and 15 tonnes of medicine have already been delivered.
A Moroccan-staffed rural clinic to treat malnutrition has also been erected in the hard-hit central Maradi region, seen as the epicentre of the hunger crisis considered a ”silent hunger” by relief agencies as it touches sectors of the population — mostly women and children — that are already ignored.
The Moroccan donation follows gifts of dates, tea, fruit juice and other staples sent by Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Libya, among others, since late last month, though an appeal by the World Food Programme for $11-million in emergency assistance has gone largely ignored by the international community.
The donated food is being distributed in eight of the most stricken regions, but will not be backed up by widespread handouts of free food by the Niger government, Bakary said on Tuesday.
A devastating cycle of drought and last year’s locust invasion robbed the desert nation of a quarter of its annual cereal production.
A national appeal has brought in about $910 000 to purchase rice and sorghum and cassava flour to be loaned to the vulnerable populations, with the expectation that the crops will be repaid in kind after the harvest season. — Sapa-AFP