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THOUSANDS of refugees fleeing fighting in Mali are putting extra pressure on food supplies in hunger-hit Niger, warns UK-based aid agency Plan International.
More than 20,000 Malians are now in the border region of Tillaberi, many in areas where villagers are facing severe food insecurity and malnutrition.
The charity is providing aid to struggling families who arrived last week from Mali. Relief supplies are already strained by 200,000 migrant workers fleeing conflicts in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire last year.
“Communities are being pushed to the brink as already reduced food supplies now have to stretch even further,” says Plan’s country director in Niger, Rheal Drisdelle.
Niger’s ‘hungry season’, usually April to November, sees malnutrition rates rise - especially in young children - with a peak in June.
But medics at Tillaberi’s intensive therapeutic feeding centre expect the worst to hit as early as April this year.
Many families have no more than a month’s supply of food to last them until the next rainy season, with cases of malnutrition already reported.
Health workers for Plan will be deployed this month to 120 villages in Tillaberi, kitted out with screening equipment to identify severe cases.
Malnourished children without complications will be treated with nutrient and vitamin-enhanced food by Plan.
Those with complications will be directed to the feeding centre for intensive treatment, with the financial and technical support of Plan.
“We’re active in Niamey, Dosso and Tillaberi, and have undertaken several activities over the past months to mitigate the effects of a future food crisis, including small off season gardening initiatives,” says Mr Drisdelle.
“Gardens help people living along the river Niger to cultivate crops in the off-season, and are currently benefitting some 2,000 women and their families in 20 villages.”
In Tillaberi, more than half (57 percent) of people reached by Plan’s work are young people under the age of 18.
Aid agencies, including Plan, are pushing the need to focus on long-term support for the Sahel region as well as emergency food aid.
Building up the resilience of the region to future droughts - so gradually reducing the need for outside assistance - is critical.
Such work from Plan will include bolstering livelihoods, school feeding and food distribution programmes. Other initiatives will continue to focus on sustainable gardening and agriculture, drought resistant crop cultivati
n, grain banks, microfinance and nutritional centres for mothers and babies. “We’ve also undertaken work to strengthen cereal banks and offer nutritional support to malnourished children under-five as well as pregnant and lactating women,” says Mr Drisdelle.
ENDS
For more information on Plan’s work or to make a donation call 0800 526 848 or visit www.plan-uk.org
