800,000 children risk starvation in Niger

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic Relief Services is increasing its aid to Niger, the West African nation plagued by drought and locusts.

CRS is increasing its annual $8 million budget for Niger by $3 million and sending additional staff to the country as it tries to stave off famine, said Christopher Daniel, CRS regional representative for West Africa.

"The food security issue is the biggest problem. Faminelike conditions are being reported in pockets of the country, mostly in the areas where CRS is operating," Daniel told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from the agency’s Baltimore headquarters. CRS is the U.S. bishops’ international relief and development agency.

Daniel said Niger’s population is suffering due to a combination of drought and locust invasion that affected crops during this year’s planting season.

The United Nations said July 27 that some 1.2 million people were at risk of starvation and that food stocks in Niger were dwindling.

The combination of attacks by crop-devouring locusts and drought resulted in severe crop damage and the loss of seed that would have been harvested for use in the 2005 planting season. It also has contributed to increases in food prices. Up to 80 percent of crops were lost in the hardest-hit regions, CRS said.

Daniel said CRS is negotiating with its donors to reappropriate money from its various development projects to respond to the current emergency. The agency also is sending additional staff from its Baltimore headquarters to join its 70 mostly national staff members in Niger, he said.

CRS has been sponsoring a seed and voucher program for farmers in Niger to grow or replace crops, but "now they just need food," Daniel said.

Some 800,000 of Niger’s children under 5 are suffering from hunger; they include 150,000 faced with severe malnutrition, The Associated Press reported July 27.

To make a donation, send checks made out to the Diocese of Dodge City to Niger Famine, Attn: Jill, P.O. Box 137, Dodge City, Kansas, 67801. All donations will be forwarded to CRS.