Bird Flu Threat Worsens Food Crisis in Niger

|PIC1|A group of leading UK aid agencies called for urgent and significant increases in aid yesterday, due to a dramatic 70 per cent fall in poultry prices in Niger caused by bird flu outbreaks. Niger, in West Africa, was the third country on the continent after Nigeria and Egypt to detect the deadly H5N1 virus, which has also killed humans.

This loss of income from poultry is adding pressure to the already severe food situation for at least one million people in Niger who are still recovering from last year’s crisis.

“The bird flu outbreak couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Brian Cavanagh, CARE International’s country director in Niger. “Last year’s food crisis left hundreds of thousands of people with nothing but the debts that they accumulated in order to survive. Now they are facing another hungry season and many families are already running out of food, with months still until the next harvest in October. At a time when people are already struggling to meet their immediate food needs, this loss of income from poultry is catastrophic.”

Warning signs of another food crisis this year continue to emere. The mayor of Soukoukoutan in Dosso told Tearfund, “Household stocks of cereal usually run out around April or May. But in some villages, people already don’t have any more food supplies so for them the situation is worse than last year. Many people are selling animals, they are borrowing seeds and food from local traders and men are going abroad to find work.”

|TOP|Tearfund’s Jo Khinmaung, who has just returned from Niger, said “donors need to release funding immediately for aid agencies, UN agencies and the government of Niger so that food security activities can be increased. To prevent this situation year after year, donors also need to reduce people’s vulnerability by investing in development projects to improve health care, water and sanitation conditions and literacy rates.”

In rural areas of Niger, poultry such as chickens and ducks are crucial assets for people, particularly poor women, who rear and sell them in order to afford their basic needs such as food, healthcare and other family needs.

“People in villages have started to panic about the health threats and so have stopped eating poultry and eggs and some have been culling their birds unnecessarily,” said Dr Saidou Hangadoumbo, CARE International’s Health Sector Coordinator in Niger. “This is adding more strain to families already affected by food shortages. Efforts to raise awareness of the risks of bird flu must be redoubled to stop unnecessary panic, stabilise prices and to ensure that the outbreak is confined within Zinder - the only region of Niger with confirmed cases.”

Niger's government said it needed about 10 million euros to fight the disease. Its appeal to the international community for help has been met with little response so far. Authorities in neighbouring Nigeria, where bird flu has infected several large poultry farms, have at least distributed rubber boots, gloves and disinfectant.

|QUOTE|Meanwhile, after three years of poor harvest in certain areas, Nigerians continue to struggle to afford the escalating cereal prices (approaching double their normal price), with 60 per cent of the population in debt after taking loans to buy food or to replace livestock lost last year. Last summer, 70 per cent of herds were lost by the pastoral communities that rely on livestock, leading to the 30 per cent rise of the price of a cow.

The latest WFP report states that 3.2 million Nigerians, nearly a third of the rural population, will remain severely or moderately food insecure in 2006 and levels of malnutrition of 15.3 per cent are well over the World Health Organisation defined emergency level of 10 per cent.

The government of Niger estimates that US$92 million is needed for food security activities this year. The World Food Programme’s food stocks are exhausted and it still needs $31.7 million of funding for projects running from April 2006 through to September 2007.

Tristan Clements, Relief Manager for World Vision says, “With another food shortage, the rural poor face tremendous risk. World Vision still has nearly 10,000 malnourished children in its feeding programmes during the first few months of the year, when the food situation is supposed to be at its best.”