Bonn, 22.7.05 - In collaboration
with its Irish partner organisation "Concern Worldwide", Deutsche
Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action) will provide help for a total of 140,000
needy persons, including 15,000 to 20,000 children in Niger in the following
six months.
The organisations are working in Tahoua
in the northwest of Niger, one of the provinces most severely hit by the
famine. Around 530,000 people live in Tahoua, 400,000 of them affected
by famine. Of the 80,000 under five-year-old children, every fifth is showing
signs of undernutrition. The children are being given special therapeutic
foods and their families extra food rations.
"It's a fight against time", says spokeswoman Marion Aberle. "Around 400 people - the majority children - are dying from the effects of undernutrition every day, and that's just in the country's northwest. If we react promptly, we can stop the situation from getting even worse."
Due to drought and the locust plague last year, there were already signs of a serious food shortage back in January. In Tahoua, a survey carried out in March by local authorities revealed that only a quarter of the required food was available. The next crops are not expected until October.
Contact person:
Marion Aberle, Press Spokeswoman
Tel. 0228 / 2288 - 114
Mobile 0172 / 25 25 962
Stefanie Koop, Press Officer
Tel. 0228 / 2288 - 404
Assistant: Doris Theisen
Tel. 0228 / 22 88 - 128
Email: presse@welthungerhilfe.de