Only after the BBC reports from Niger generated an international public outcry did the World Food Program initiate a massive distribution of free food.
Now, after a month of frantic, expensive operations including airlifts and truck caravans, the first of that emergency food has begun arriving in the past week, the World Bank press review reports Wednesday.
In most of Nigers hungriest areas, where a combination of drought, locust infestation and profiteering has made food dangerously scarce, there has been little or no relief.
Babies suck on breasts that have long gone dry. Cattle collapse from hunger. Villagers eat bitter leaves and sour fruits they would never touch in better years.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
