Extreme weather starving Chad and Niger

Alanna Shaikh in UN Dispatch: Ten million people are at risk for starvation in Chad and Niger. 400,000 children are at risk in Niger alone. Years of crop-destroying drought are being followed by flash floods. The drought has been causing hunger for years, destroying crops and livestock. Now, the floods have wiped out what’s left.

It was already bad in both Niger and Chad … The floods make it dramatically worse. It’s not just the floods making things worse; international aid has fallen short. At a time where need is growing, food aid is shrinking. The World Food Programme, according to Oxfam, “has had to scale back its £57m operation to feed eight million people in Niger and instead concentrate its efforts on the most vulnerable – children under two…” In addition to the damage done by starvation, people in the flood areas are not at risk for waterborne diseases. That means, diarrhea (the kind that kills children), malaria, and respiratory ailments….