Although the current severe food crisis in Niger was preditcted last year after poor harvests, the UN's World Food Programme only began to address the emergency in February 2005. Months after the crisis had already begun, food provision started to trickle to 400,000 of the estimated 4 million people in Niger facing starvation, a quarter of the country's population. Aid workers fear 150,000 children could die from malnutrition and disease.
In the village of Tajae food aid only began to arrive in April, distributed by the World Food Programme.
Many months too late the world community is turning its...