Millions Affected

Experts say this is the worst food crisis for 20 years in Nigeria , which ranks as the second poorest country in the world.

"If the famine continues my family and I will die," said 80-year-old Abdou Adamou, a farmer from Tondikiwindi , Nigeria . "We have nothing to survive on. There is no food, no property and no livestock."

A further 1.5 million people in the north of neighbouring Mali are also affected.

Rocketing Food Prices

Livestock are dying of starvation and drought in great numbers. It takes years for nomadic herdsmen to build up their herds, which have now been decimated.

Failed harvests have also sent farmers spiralling into poverty and hunger. Seeds for the next harvest have been eaten, leaving nothing to plant for October.

Food prices in the markets have more than doubled. In a country where two thirds of the population lives on less than $1 a day, most people cannot afford to buy food.

Child health care

Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk from hunger and malnutrition.

A locust plague followed by drought blighted Nigeria and neighboring West African countries.

"We need the public to donate whatever they can to help us save lives," said the Assiga child hearth care (ACHC), which will run the appeal.

According to the Red Cross, almost eight million people are at risk of hunger not only in Nigeria, but also in neighboring countries

In Mali, some 1.1 million people will need food aid this year and in northern Burkina Faso 500,000 people need help.

Child mortality

Nigeria - the world's second-poorest nation - has been ruined by decades of chronic poverty.

Before the current crisis, 40% of children were malnourished and the north-west African country had the second highest global mortality rate among children under five.

Millions are struggling to deal with the effects of a persistent lack of food, safe water and basic healthcare, say the charities.

"Every second counts," said Assiga Mbang, chief executive of ACHC, an umbrella group of charities.

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 Millions are struggling to deal with the effects of a persistent lack of food, safe water and basic healthcare, say the charities.

"Every second counts," said Assiga Mbang, chief executive of ACHC, an umbrella group of charities.

Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN's assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs, admitted that for the crisis to have reached this stage, the system had failed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme she said: "In hindsight, I think we will all agree that we were too slow.

"What we have is a system that seems to be quite unable to focus on more than one or two big emergencies at the same time.

"And I think what is a bitter pill for all of us is that it's only when we are faced with images of starving children that the international system starts kicking along."

Donations

Reporting from Niger, BBC correspondent Barnaby Phillips said one worker from the charity Medicines Sans Frontier told him free food should have been sent sooner.

"It makes me angry, I am very sad about this situation, with all these malnourished children, that could have been avoided if the international community had sent in its resources earlier."

HAVE YOUR SAY
"Wise and compassionate prompt aid is a better response than prejudice "
Alan Waters, USA

 

Nigeria neighbors also face hunger

The food crisis in Nigeria also threatens three other countries in the region - Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, the United Nations has warned.

At least 2.5m people in the three countries need food aid and like Nigeria they were hit by drought and a plague of locusts last year.

Niger's president is due to visit the worst hit south of his country, where aid is now beginning to arrive.

The UN's food agency says it expects to feed 250,000 people within a few days.

Region

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that other countries in the Sahara region were also badly hit.

NIGERIA IN FACTS AND FIGURES
 

·                                 Landlocked country in West Africa

·                                 One of poorest nations in world

·                                 Population of 11.5m

·                                 60% of population live on $1 a day

·                                 50% of population under 15

·                                 82% of population depend on subsistence farming

Source: UNDP

Q&A: Food crises and aid

In neighboring Mali, some 1.1 million people will need food aid this year.

About 5,000 children in the north are suffering from acute malnutrition, and infant mortality in some areas has reached record levels, the UN says.

In northern Burkina Faso, some 500,000 people are in need of food aid and people are leaving their homes in search of food.

Nigeria

In southern Niger, the UN estimates it will be able to feed 1.2m people by September, but that only represents a third of those in need of food.

The BBC's Hilary Anderson in Niger says that with rains now in full flow in the south of the country, disease is spreading and aid workers predict the crisis will escalate over the next few weeks.

Landlocked Niger is one of the world's two poorest countries and it rarely grows enough food to feed its population.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said that the international community has put more money into the Niger relief effort over the past 10 days than it had during the previous 10 months.

 Q&A: Food crises and aid

As a severe food crisis strikes Nigeria and hunger looms in neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, the BBC News website asks what lies behind such food shortages and examines how hungry people are helped.

What causes a severe food crisis?

Serious food crises occur when people cannot get enough nutritious food to eat.

They can be triggered by natural disasters, conflict, political instability, economic failure or even epidemics such as HIV.

Famine occurs when several of these factors are made worse by governments' failure to deal with the situation.

Food prices are driven up, overwhelming systems of health, law and order and causing widespread death from malnutrition and disease.

What does it mean when someone is acutely malnourished?

Acute malnutrition is the result of sudden weight loss due to starvation and disease.

Characterized by "wasting" - which means children are far skinnier for their height than healthy children - acute malnutrition often leads to rapid death as it increases the risk of infection and can mean that vital organs stop working.

Acute malnutrition, if caught in time and treated correctly, can be treated but it may have long-term effects on physical and mental growth.

More than 50 million children worldwide are acutely malnourished.

How do aid agencies keep track of hunger?

changes in food availability.

These include satellite weather technology to estimate rainfall and crop assessments which can help predict harvests.

They also carry out nutritional surveys so that they know how much people are eating and also examine the political situation which might affect the hunger of a population.

Local staffs in the field also channel information from the ground.

Areas of hunger can change dramatically within a single country and these tools create a picture of areas that need special help.

How and when do aid agencies intervene?

The World Health Organization considers a situation to be "emergency out-of-control" when four children of every 10,000 die per day from malnutrition and other causes.

ACUTE MALNUTRITION IN UNDER-FIVES

·                                 Afghanistan 25%

·                                 Somalia 17%

·                                 Cambodia 15%

·                                 Laos 15%

·                                 United Arab Emirates 15%

·                                 Madagascar 14%

·                                 Niger 14%

·                                 Sri Lanka 14%

·                                 Burkina Faso 13%

Source: Unicef

 

Non-governmental organizations, aid agencies and charities are often present long before crises erupt.

But when they are and the local government cannot handle the problem alone, major emergency operations are initiated to get much larger quantities of food aid to hungry people.

Food can be on the ground in as little as 48 hours.

But aid agencies rely entirely on donations from the public and private donors for their work and if money is not provided, there may be little they can do to help.

What are people given to eat and why?

The World Food Programme emergency ration includes about one and a half cups of rice or flour, a tablespoon of beans or lentils, a spoonful of oil and a pinch of salt.

It costs an average of $0.29 and provides 2,100 kilocalories - the recommended daily energy intake for active adults.

The people most at risk of malnutrition - especially women and children - often receive specially blended foods that contain all the vitamins and minerals they need to survive.

They may be given this food in biscuit form or in a flour which can be mixed into porridge.

The average cost of a day's ration of high-energy biscuits is $0.55.

In the very first days of an emergency - such as a refugee exodus or natural disaster - when people are not able to cook their own food - aid agencies can provide biscuits, rations or even freshly baked bread for people.