NIGER: Kofi Annan visits the hungry as MSF blasts UN

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NIAMEY, 23 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in hunger-stricken Niger on Tuesday for a first-hand look at the country’s food crisis as international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) lambasted the UN’s response to the emergency.

Accompanying Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja to Zinder, some 900 kilometres east of the capital, Niamey, and one of the regions hardest hit by the crisis, Annan stressed the need for cooperation to solve the problem.

“To find a solution together, it is necessary to work together to resolve the situation not only in the short term but in the long term also,” Annan said.

MSF workers chose Annan’s visit to voice concerns that the food being distributed in Niger is not suitable for children fighting malnutrition. MSF coordinator Isabelle Defourny told IRIN by phone from Maradi, southern Niger, that they had spoken with Annan on the matter.

“We also told him the distribution is not touching the people who need it the most,” Defourny said.

In a 22 August press statement MSF said the UN World Food Programme’s distribution plan is based on harvest assessments carried out after 2004’s locust invasions and drought, rather than on people’s current nutritional status in the landlocked West African country.

“Targeting is not based on the nutritional situation,” Defourny said on Tuesday. “It is not a question of a simple, direct link between a bad harvest from last year and severe malnutrition. It is more complex than that.”

MSF points to the southern province of Maradi, where the number of malnourished children admitted to an MSF feeding centre has continued to sky-rocket even though an emergency relief operation is in full swing.

Between 8 and 14 August, MSF in Maradi admitted 1,053 children for emergency nutritional treatment - up from 403 children coming through the Maradi centre in the first week of July, according to the aid group’s statement.

MSF also argues that the food WFP is providing is not adapted for malnourished children.

“To cure malnutrition, children and infants require specialised food like enriched flour, which is not present in the rations distributed by the WFP,” the MSF statement said.

WFP's regional public information officer, Marcus Prior, told IRIN from Niamey that 186 tonnes of corn-soya blend (CSB) have already been given to partners for distribution and 950 tonnes are being airlifted into the country this week.

MSF officials argue CSB should be more widely distributed, rather than just in therapeutic feeding centers, as it can help stave off severe malnutrition in moderately malnourished children.

WFP country director Gian Carlo Cirri said WFP’s distribution plan - based on the Niger government’s early warning system - is specifically designed to get food to the most vulnerable people first.

But he added that the plan has changed in the past and could be adjusted again if it becomes clear that people urgently needing food aid are not receiving it.

“The distribution plan is a flexible tool, not a static document,” Cirri told IRIN from Zinder. "For now," Cirri said, “We are confident that we are distributing the right food in the right place.”

WFP has identified 2.5 million people in need of food aid assistance - up from an earlier target of 1.2 million. Distributions to the 1.9 million considered most vulnerable are already underway.

WFP has said it will conduct a food needs evaluation in October to form future food aid strategy in Niger.

MSF officials have repeatedly criticised the UN for what they say has been a ‘slow response’ to an emergency aid workers have been warning about since the end of 2004.

Earlier this year MSF condemned the Niger government’s failure to distribute free food in the early stages of the crisis. Up until mid-July the Niger government opted for subsidised grain sales rather than free food aid for the hardest-hit zones.

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