Hunger crisis in Niger in 2005

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The hunger crisis in Niger in 2005 was the result of a food shortage that was due to natural causes, but was largely exacerbated by political and economic human intervention. It is estimated that the hunger crisis affected between 2.4 and 3.6 million people in the regions of Zinder , Maradi , Diffa and Tahoua .

It is estimated that between 13,000 and 48,000 people died as a direct result of malnutrition. This food shortage affected all West African countries that are in the Sahel region, but acute famine only occurred in Niger . This food shortage in Niger also showed for the first time the limits of the global community's humanitarian commitment . Due to the lack of media attention, the famine only became known worldwide in August 2005 , the climax. This is despite the fact that the Niger government and the UN World Food Program have been pointing out this impending food shortage several times since the end of 2004 and spring 2005 and warned of an impending famine.

causes

Geographical aspects

The Niger is located in West Africa , its landscape is mostly from deserts in the north, the savannah of the Sahel , in the south, and Sudan determined in the southwest. The areas affected by the famine extend in the west of the Chad Basin on the southern border of the Niger and Nigeria , in the Sahel Acacia savanna. The affected regions are in the water catchment area of ​​the Komadougou Yobé , in this basin between 200 and 600 mm of rain falls per year, which is fed by the West African monsoon, this rainfall enables dry field cultivation by mainly growing millet .

Historical aspects

In the past, the variability of the West African monsoons led to long, prolonged periods of drought , but also to large swarms of migratory locusts that occurred for a limited period and the political instability in the region led to famine in the past . There is historical evidence of great famines in the region since the 16th century. Since the end of the great famine in the Sahel during the 1960 / 1980s, an early warning system called the Famine Early Warning Systems Network has been set up by US-AID . The region of the Sahel is due to the low development index, the variability of seasonal rains particularly susceptible to malnutrition of the people in droughts, especially children are affected.

Political and economic aspects

Niger is a member of the West African Economic Community ( ECOWAS ), whose goal is the expansion of economic integration and food self-sufficiency in the member countries. Niger is economically closely linked to the former colonial power France and the European Union through bilateral agreements . With the development of aid programs and loans from donor countries, the countries of the Sahel have no longer had any influence on food prices themselves since the great famines of the 1970s and 80s. Niger is also one of the countries with a low development index . 82% of the population live from agriculture, but only 15% of the land area of ​​the Niger is suitable for arable farming. In general, only one harvest per year can be brought in in these areas, which actually forces the farmers to build up supplies and to keep reserves for new sowing in the following year. However, due to the overuse of the soil in the Zinder and Maradi region, the farmers are largely forced to sell their harvests in order to settle debts or to pay for the new sowing.

Process of famine

Already in 2003/04 there were signs of an impending food shortage. These were registered by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network and experts forecast a crop failure of around 8–12%. The reasons for the failure were large swarms of locusts and expected lower rainfall. This crop failure was considered harmless by the experts, as a crop failure of 22% was observed in 2001 and no famine broke out. At the same time, the international authorities assumed that the free markets would remove a regional food shortage in West Africa. However, since supraregional harvest losses became known in 2004/2005, especially in northeastern Nigeria, some West African countries such as Mali and Senegal closed their borders for grain exports. This fact was not taken into account by the early warning system and only led to the famine in Niger. The Nigerian traders paid higher prices for grain than the Nigerien traders, as a result of which Niger even became a grain exporter in this situation. This situation culminated in spring and summer from a food shortage to a famine in southern Niger, which surprised all experts. To make matters worse, the Nigerien state ignored the approaching famine until spring 2005 and was unable to import the necessary grain in early summer because the regional markets were empty and the prices for grain had risen by up to 89%. Grain became an object of speculation. Appeals by the Niger and the United Nations World Food Program for aid deliveries in early summer went unheard by the donor countries. The World Bank, the USA and the EU Commission made future loans for Niger dependent on the functioning of the free markets and thus practically preventing the free distribution of food.

The famine that has now arisen reached its peak in July / August 2005. According to the organization Doctors Without Borders , the mortality rate was 1.5 deaths / day and 10,000 in adults and 4.1 deaths / day and 10,000 in children. Only media reports in midsummer moving the donor countries and NGOs to be in Niger involved and the famine fight that would last until spring of 2006.

Trivia

The photographer Finbarr O'Reilly received the award World Press Photo of the Year in 2005 , waits for receiving a mother with her child in front of a food emergency center.

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan: Analysis rétrospective de la crise alimentaire au Niger en 2005 (=  Etudes et Travaux du LASDEL . No. 59 ). LASDEL, Niamey / Parakou May 2007 ( lasdel.net [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Africa: Famine in Niger (German)
  2. ^ Giovanni Andrea Cornia: Niger's 2005 Food Crisis Extent, Causes and Nutritional Impact .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) University of Florence (English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eudnet.net  
  3. ↑ Stephen Devereux: Why does famine persit in Africa . doi: 10.1007 / s12571-008-0005-8 (English)
  4. ↑ Niger 2005 - Famine in a Sahel country or why the international community did not intervene . ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Goemlinde  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geolinde.musin.de
  5. ^ Joachim von Braun: The World Food Situation - An Overview . ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) Worldbank papers (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ifpri.org
  6. ^ Matthias Krings, Editha Platte (ed.): Living with the Lake . Studies on Cultural Studies No. 121, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag Cologne ISBN 978-3-89645-216-0 , pp. 52–72 (English)
  7. ↑ Katherine Hampshire, Rachel Casiday, Kate Kilpatrick, Catherine Panter-Brick: The social context of childcare practices and child malnutrition in Niger's recent food crisis . In: Disasters Volume , 33, Issue 1, January 2009, pp. 132–151, doi: 10.1111 / j.1467-7717.2008.01066.x (English)
  8. ↑ Chibuzo Odigwe Calabar: Agencies scale up African Relief . In: BMJ , Volume 331, 20–27, August PMC 1188134 (free full text)
  9. ↑ ARTE With open cards - Niger: Foreseeable famine . ARTE . Video stream with German translation
  10. ↑ Jenny C. Aker: How Can We Avoid Another Food Crisis in Niger? (PDF; English)
  11. ^ Jenny C. Aker: Droughts, Grain Markets and Food Crisis in Niger . (PDF) Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics University of California-Berkeley (English)
  12. ^ Press photo from 2005