UN denies inaction on food crisis in Niger

A row has broken out between United Nations agencies and the Irish aid agency Goal over the UN's effectiveness in responding to the food crisis in Niger.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and Unicef have attacked Goal chief executive John O'Shea over his claims that UN agencies did nothing to tackle Niger's crisis until goaded into action by aid agencies and the media.

WFP officials are said to be "flabbergasted" by Mr O'Shea's repeated attacks on the UN over the past month.

"Not only are we doing a great deal now but we've been doing it since the crisis began, and with very little money," said its senior public affairs officer, Greg Barrow.

Unicef Ireland said Mr O'Shea's claim that the UN had "failed to deliver" was "simply untrue".

He pointed to Goal's claim to have fed more people in its first week in Niger than the UN had this year. In fact, he said, WFP had distributed 11,000 tons of food to 500,000 people in the west African country up to the end of June. From July 24th, when Goal arrived to begin food distribution to 10,000 people, WFP provided almost 3,000 tons of food for 263,000, Mr Barrow said.

"The suggestion that things started happening only when Goal arrived on the scene is, therefore, a bit rich. I'm not sure we could have done more than we did," he said.

Mr Barrow said Goal's criticisms were all the more surprising given the agency gets 11 per cent of its funding from WFP.

He said the agency had warned of the growing problems in Niger on many occasions since late last year, but donors failed to respond until television crews reported on the food crisis.

Last night, Mr O'Shea was unrepentant. "The camera doesn't lie. The situation in Niger is a cock-up by the international community and if the UN was representing the international community then it was the UN that cocked up."

Asked about his information on the amount of food distributed, Mr O'Shea said that while he could not be sure of its accuracy "I know when I'm looking at a starving person".

He acknowledged that WFP was one of the best UN agencies and did "a superb job" in many other countries.

Irish aid agencies have raised about €4 million for Niger so far.