By Mike Wooldridge BBC World affairs correspondent in Niamey, Niger
The latest upsurge in violence in northern Nigeria will only add to the challenges facing Niger - the landlocked nation immediately to the north - as it tries to contain the potentially severe impact of its latest looming food crisis.
There have been increasing warnings of only a brief window to mobilise substantially increased resources for Niger to avoid the risk that the world will have another humanitarian disaster on its hands.
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