Niger

By Alan Fisher in Africa on August 16th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Two weeks today - it's Monday here in London - I returned from Niger. Al Jazeera had begun carrying a series of reports from the country which warned that the severe hunger in the country was at risk of tipping into a full blown famine.

We visited the more fertile south and saw the problems there, and we visited the north - accompanied by an army patrol because of security issues - and saw the real hardships for villagers across the region.

People were warning us that things were as bad as they had ever been, that this was much worse than the conditions that brought the terrible famine of 2005.

The United Nation's World Food Programme now officially backs what the people told us.  They say half the country's population, 7.3 million people - are in desperate need of food.

By Alan Fisher in Europe on August 12th, 2010
Photo by Getty Images

You may know I’ve just returned from Niger. There, tens of thousands of people are facing extreme hunger because of the droughts of the last two years.

The rainy season is under way but the rains around the capital of Niamey have been torrential and persistent. It's not what is needed. The water is not nourishing the soil. It’s washing away the crops. It’s washing away homes. It is destroying lives.

The trouble there comes as Pakistan struggles to cope with the worst floods since the creation of the state. Millions of people are homeless. The UN predicts the devastation will be worse than the Asian Tsunami, which struck several countries.

Torrential rain has swept through China. The official death toll is creeping up all the time. It is going to be in the thousands. Mudslides have brought havoc to many places across the country’s northwest.

By Haru Mutasa in Africa on February 20th, 2010
Picture from AFP

Here's a conversation that occurred Saturday morning at a coffee shop in Johannesburg South Africa.

Person A: "What is it about West Africa and coups?"

 

Person B: "Yeah, Niger is the latest I read. Another African leader bites the dust."

 

Person A: "I don't know much about that part of the continent but isn’t he meant to be some kind of dictator – who only wanted to hang onto power and didn’t believe in democracy and freedom of speech?"

 

Person B: "Well the guys who've taken over say they are going to restore democratic processes. Last I read ordinary citizens were celebrating, glad the coup happened."

 

Person A: "Interesting. So – why aren't our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe like that? They complain about Robert Mugabe and yet they seem to put up with the old man."

 

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