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Niger

Niger humanitarian crisis

The international response in Niger continues to gather pace on the ground. We continue to closely monitor the situation, and welcome the announcement of an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to increase the scale of NGO relief operations.

DFID funding is being used to support a UNICEF airlift of 100 metric tonnes of nutritionally enhanced food mix (UNIMIX). This will help ensure an uninterrupted supply of urgently required nutritional relief, and will help stop 16,000 children from slipping into severe malnourishment.

Donor commitments and pledges now exceed =A321m (US$37m). DFID has contributed =A33m, making us the second largest bilateral donor after the US. The EU relief agency ECHO has committed almost =A34m (US$7m), of which the UK share is 18%.

The UN will be issuing an updated Flash Appeal for Niger early this week. We will study this with care as soon as we have it.

We are closely monitoring the situation in the wider region. There are pockets of need in several countries, but none yet warranting the scale of response in Niger, which remains the top priority. We are seeking a more comprehensive assessment of the regional situation from UN and NGO partners and are ready to respond if necessary.