Dakar (dpa) – An imminent hunger crisis in West Africa's Sahel region is already provoking desperate behavior with many struggling to feed their families, according to a new report Wednesday. About 11 million people are estimated to be affected, from Mauritania and northern Senegal to Chad and Niger, where the worst cases have been reported. Some families are picking millet grains directly from their stems, without giving them the time to ripen, resulting in stomach problems. Others are scrambling around on their hands and knees, desperately trying to find grain discarded by mice. Others have been reduced to raiding anthills, returning home covered in painful ant bites for the sake of a teaspoon's worth of grain. The report, by the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) and a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including Oxfam, Save the Children and Catholic Relief Services, focuses on Niger, where every single family interviewed by the group said they have already started to cut back on portions and the number of meals they eat per day. It paints a picture of families in crisis, many of whom are still in debt from crop failure in 2009, and of parents having no choice but to pull their children out of school in order to contribute to family incomes. In the town of Tahoua, 471 boys and 255 girls have been struck from class registers, following their parents to rural areas to look for food and work. The impending crisis, a result of changing weather patterns, locusts and a lengthening dry period when crops do not grow, is likely to be exacerbated by the high numbers of returning workers from Libya, the report says – something that is also “disrupting the flow of remittances.” According to the government of Niger, about 220,000 Nigerien migrants returned home during or after Libya's conflict. Nigerians who had jobs in Libya under Muammar Gaddafi's regime would regularly send payments home to family members via services such as Western Union. The study says that the devaluation of the US dollar and the euro, and subsequent loss of purchasing power, means that exports to Niger from neighboring Nigeria have been cut back. It warns that Niger, which has the highest fertility rate in sub-Saharan Africa, with the average woman giving birth to seven or eight children, could see child deaths in many families if NGOs are unable to raise the funds needed to support those affected. According to a study conducted during a non-critical period, 61 per cent of toddlers surveyed in the country were already too small for their age. “People in Niger are facing a multifold crisis,” said Oxfam's Samuel Braimah in Niger. “This year, we're witnessing a lethal cocktail which is putting enormous strain on households across the country. Following several crisis since 2005, their coping mechanisms have reached their limit and already pushed thousands over the edge.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/tlfde Tags: Crisis, Food, Health, Hunger, Sahel Section: Environment, Food, Health, Latest News, West Africa
