ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board
Happy anniversary Gazza
Today 23 years ago Gazza lost his ears virginity!! Congratulations!!
Slane Castle, Republic of Ireland - 24th July 1982
© 1982 Denis O'Regan
[ ROCKSOFF.ORG ] [ IORR NEWS ] [ SETLISTS 1962-2003 ] [ FORO EN ESPAÑOL ] [ BIT TORRENT TRACKER ] [ BIRTHDAY'S LIST ] [ MICK JAGGER ] [ KEITHFUCIUS ] [ CHARLIE WATTS ] [ RONNIE WOOD ] [ BRIAN JONES ] [ MICK TAYLOR ] [ BILL WYMAN ] [ IAN "STU" STEWART ] [ NICKY HOPKINS ] [ MERRY CLAYTON ] [ IAN 'MAC' McLAGAN ] [ LINKS ] [ PHOTOS ] [ JIMI HENDRIX ] [ TEMPLE ] [ GUESTBOOK ] [ ADMIN ]
CHAT ROOM aka The Fun HOUSE Rest rooms last days
ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board
Register | Update Profile | F.A.Q. | Admin Control Panel

Topic: How the rich ignored Niger crisis (NSC) Return to archive
July 20th, 2005 01:50 PM
Jair How the rich ignored Niger crisis


DAKAR, Senegal (Reuters) -- The costs of saving millions of people starving in Niger are rocketing because rich nations ignored calls for early intervention to avert the ravages of last year's drought, relief workers said on Wednesday.

Increasingly desperate appeals from aid agencies and the government have encouraged donors to come forward with funds in the past few weeks, but only after large numbers of children began dying of diseases brought on by hunger.

"The funding needs are sky-rocketing because it's a matter of saving lives," said Gian Carlo Cirri, the U.N. World Food Program's (WFP) representative in Niger's capital Niamey.

"The pity is we designed early enough a preventative strategy, but we didn't have the chance to implement it."

In common with many other crises in Africa, U.N. officials say the late response in Niger shows how the rich world often misses chances to avoid worse disasters by reacting only when situations reach critical, headline-grabbing proportions.

In Niger's case, failed rains and locusts left some 3.6 million people short of food last year, putting tens of thousands of children at risk of starving to death.

There is no national mortality data for the West African country, but aid workers say many infants have already died.

Jan Egeland, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on Tuesday it would have cost $1 a day to prevent malnutrition among children if the world had responded immediately. Now it costs some $80 to save a malnourished child's life, he said.

WFP, which is responsible for emergency food aid, initially asked for $4.2 million to feed 465,000 people, aiming to help the poorest households through the worst hunger period.

It said the tardy donor response, exacerbated by problems buying food in the region, allowed the situation to worsen, forcing WFP to announce last week it was tripling its operation to feed 1.2 million people and ask for an extra $12 million.

Cirri said donors have so far funded 37 percent of the total appeal for about $16 million from WFP, but other U.N. agencies like the children's fund UNICEF have also had to increase the size of their appeals to deal with the scale of the disaster.

"We missed the first train because of late funding and huge procurement problems. We have no other solution than to ask for a huge amount of money just to save those lives, otherwise we will have a tragedy," Cirri told Reuters by telephone.

OCHA appealed in New York on Tuesday for $500,000 in grants to set up a fund to launch emergency relief as soon as warning signs emerge.

Niger's government, which is aiming to feed roughly 1.3 million people, says it has had a paltry response to a June appeal for about 35 million euros to replenish its mechanism to deal with the country's chronic food shortages.

The former colonial power France announced it was donating 2 million euros on Tuesday to add to an existing 3 million euro pledge for Niger's food crisis this year. But many other rich countries have yet to send help.

Until France made its pledge the government said it had received a total of about 240,000 euros from China and South Korea for the June appeal, the vast majority donated by Beijing.

"We need more donations," said Seidou Bakari, the coordinator of the government's food crisis unit. "At the moment we have used all our reserves, we have nothing."





Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. SOOOOORRY!!!!
July 20th, 2005 01:55 PM
Scottfree Is this the same UN that was inolved in the oil for food scandal??
July 20th, 2005 02:00 PM
jb Golda Meir Quotes
Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided-not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.
Golda Meir
July 20th, 2005 03:16 PM
PeerQueer Are there any Jews residing in Niger?

Would that be pronounced a JewNiger or a NigerJew?

Hey, someone had to ask...
July 20th, 2005 03:35 PM
gimmekeef Sad news...hey lets have a big concert to raise awareness about the poor countries...hey wait.....NEVER MIND!
July 20th, 2005 03:44 PM
glencar If it was a $ a day last year, why didn't the UN "just do it" & get a bigger bang for the buck? No wonder most people don't respect the UN.
July 20th, 2005 04:06 PM
Jumping Jack Maybe Chirac will sell some of the barrels of oil he stole from starving Iraqis and redistribute the proceeds to starving Africans.

Has hell frozen over yet?
Search for information in the wet page, the archives and this board:

PicoSearch
The Rolling Stones World Tour 2005 Rolling Stones Forum - Rolling Stones Message Board - Mick Jagger - Keith Richards - Brian Jones - Charlie Watts - Ian Stewart - Stu - Bill Wyman - Mick Taylor - Ronnie Wood - Ron Wood - Rolling Stones 2005 Tour - Farewell Tour - Rolling Stones: Onstage World Tour

NEW: SEARCH ZONE:
Search for goods, you'll find the impossible collector's item!!!
Enter artist an start searching using "Power Search" (RECOMMENDED)