Screaming Hunger In Niger

By Author: Amit Pyakurel
Total Articles: 1
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Those heartrending images of skinny and dilapidated physiques of adults, children, and infants due to the grisly famine in Niger can be hard to accept by any ordinary mind-set in the world lending some way or the other "a normal life". Usually when we talk about hunger, starvation, malnutrition, and hazardous diseases we instantly come to link our senses with the regions of western African regions and one of them is Niger's crisis which is hitting the international headlines these days. Not only Niger but other places in Africa like Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Togo are also bearing the identical circumstance. It seems like those words has become synonymous to these parts of the world and spells out a gruesome picture of human suffering apparently because of the so-called natural phenomena. Lack of urgent attention of the local government and also by the trusted institution like UN has no doubtedly contributed for the situation to be effectively worse. Also through the consistent appealing to the western nations by the UN ruling body, only a few (regarding the actual need) help ...
... could have been obtained to resolve the crisis so far, and sometimes not even any response for such appeals were obtained. The appealing of the UN began to show its face actually since the November of 2004, and it only came to be fruitful in July but with only one-third of the aid amount asked (i.e. $10 million of $30 million) was given, which was again another struggle to make out a considerable assistance with meager wealth. It's true that more pledges has been received in the later months than in the past but late obtaining of the aid amounts has resulted in some cases to be worthless as the treatment for some children suffering from malnutrition was already out of remedy. As pointed out by Johanne Sekkenes, the mission head of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), it was criminal of the UN this year (2004) of tackling of such emergency gingerly by putting 'moderately priced' cereals in the market. As being the 'moderately priced', the majority of citizens couldn't afford such dear costs of the food though being present in the market places at the proximity of their households. No indication in the market places speaks out that the time is tough in Niger, as you can buy almost everything, but only if you can. The market places are decorated with rations like spinach, onions, sliced pumpkins into orange shards, etc. showing plenty of chance to go and grab it but with no avail. The poor locals could only be a helpless bystander of not being able to afford such dear prices. So the major number of citizens yet remains incapable to fill their granaries, even their bellies, even though the market is full. The costly market makes an ordinary citizen unable to get anything from the market leaving himself and his family in an ongoing hunger and malnutrition. You can generally hear the saying as "I can't buy millet in the market because of the cost and even my baby suffers malnutrition." It's true that a baby doesn't eat millet but a malnourished mother cannot produce milk for her infant as milk can't be made out of nothing. The scanty rainfall and locusts' pandemic is a strong but not the only cause for starvation. As stated above the unhelpful market strategy and hindrance in the aid supplies contributed a lot to make the situation further worse. Now, it seems that the situation could get quite better keeping in mind the growing outcry of the global public, being the painful pictures of poverty screened on the televisions of the worldwide living rooms. But only desire-to-help strategy isn't going to yield much because it's more crucial to create a situation for the effective-delivery of the aids to these regions without being destroyed or mishandled in the way. The state of affairs like corruption can do a lot of damage to the noble mission of aid-providers and can also discourage the additional aid to arrive. So only the phenomena like drought, locusts, and poverty can't be seen as only cause for the famine to occur, but the unsuitable market condition and disgruntled aid supply is equally responsible to put the salt on the wound. Calling it 'inevitable' blaming only poverty and natural factors can be seen unjustified as political consequences has got lot to do to cause the people to starve in Niger. So leaders of politics in local and foreign governments, if willing to help, must play an indispensable role to overcome this turmoil sooner than later. __________________________________________________
About the Author I'm a college student from Nepal and interested in home as well as world politics and social issues. I would like to contribute my sincere effort by writting articles on these issues and engage, may be as a freelance article writer.