NIGER: The world has pushed the west African country of Niger to the brink of starvation by failing to heed calls for aid, according to the United Nations' most senior humanitarian official.
About 150,000 children will die soon without emergency supplies of food, said Jan Egeland yesterday, out of 2.5 million people needing help.
Relief workers warned last year that millions of people had lost their crops after locusts ripped through the landlocked country.
The locusts were followed by a drought which ended only last month, leaving rural populations in a desperate situation until the next millet harvest in October.
The United Nations first appealed for assistance for Niger in November and received almost no response, said Mr Egeland. Another appeal for $16 million in March raised about $1 million.
"The world wakes up when we see images on the TV and when we see children dying," Mr Egeland told the BBC's World Today programme.
"We have received more pledges in the past week than we have in six months. But it is too late for some of these children."
So far the UN has received about a third of the $30 million it now needs, he added.
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world - ranked 176 out of 177 on the UN's development index. Life expectancy is 46 years at birth and, even in a good year, child malnutrition rates are high.
Years of food shortages have made it tough for the population to withstand extra pressures such as locusts or drought.
Aid workers in the country say children are dying every day in feeding centres in the south of the country and that up to a quarter of the country's 12 million population needs food aid.
"Children are dying and adults are going hungry," said Gian Carlo Cirri, World Food Programme country director. "We have said this before and we are saying it again - Niger needs help today, not tomorrow."
Aid agency Goal said yesterday it would send an assessment team to the country and was considering sending a planeload of medical supplies.
The Government is today expected to donate €1 million to aid efforts to feed the people of Niger, writes Mark Hennessy.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been in talks with the United Nations and the World Food Programme for several weeks, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Conor Lenihan.
Aid agency Concern which has volunteers in the country, submitted a plan to Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, which is being studied by officials.