The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it is massively scaling-up its food assistance operation in the West African state of Niger to feed up to 8 million hungry people who have lost crops and livestock due to a particularly severe drought.
“We're particularly worried about the children, because their nutrition status is deteriorating very rapidly, and we are seeing a doubling of acute malnutrition, almost overnight here”, said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, who visited Niger for a fact-finding mission last week (20 July).
Sheeran said that for the next 6 weeks, “we really need the world to respond, to support the people of Niger, to make sure the children have adequate nutrition in their diet, and we're really ramping up to do that.”
The food and nutritional crisis in Niger has grown dramatically in the months since the last harvest in September 2009. A national Nutrition and Child Survival Survey released in June showed that young children are under particular threat from malnutrition.
Working with the government and NGO partners, WFP has been expanding its operations to the point where it now aims to feed 7.9 million people through to the end of the year. WFP is deploying rations in Niger that include highly nutritious food supplements such as enhanced corn-soya blend and Plumpy’doz, a paste made of peanuts, oil, sugar and milk fortified with vitamins and minerals to help to address the nutritional needs of young children.
“Well, The World Food Programme, will now be seeking to reach almost 8 million people, focused really on the most vulnerable”, Sheeran said.
The cost of WFP’s expanded operation in Niger is US$213 million and at the moment it is barely half funded. While some food supplies can be purchased from neighbouring countries in the region, the normal lead-time to deliver food that is procured further a field is between two and three months.
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/15584.html
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