NIGER : "August will be the worst month"

Dr. Milton Tectonidis, nutritional specialist for MSF in Niger: “It will take some time for other groups to set up. And as we enter the rainy season and get closer to the next harvest, there will be even less food and more malaria and diarrhea.”

Four-year old Moussa died the morning after another 18 tons of food aid was unloaded at Maradi’s airport. Compounding the grief felt by his family, the boy’s father, a poor bean, peanut, and millet farmer from the village of Nyelwa, on the outskirts of Maradi, Niger, had to ask strangers for money so he could transport the body of his dead son home.

During the many days Moussa unsuccessfully fought for his life at the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) feeding center in Maradi, 2-year old Aboubakar fell sick with diarrhea nearly 75 miles to the east, in Gazaoua.

“I have no money,” said his young mother, Rabi, adding that even if she could manage the 700 CFA (~ USD$1.50) it costs just to enter a health center, she could never afford the additional fees for a consultation and medicines. Predictably, Aboubakar’s condition worsened, and he slipped into a state of severe malnutrition. When he arrived at the MSF feeding center in nearby Aguile in early August, he was on the brink of death.

Moussa and Aboubakar are just two of the latest victims of the hunger stalking children in the poorest families of this vast, land-locked West African nation of 12.5…

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I have lived many lives in many countries. an alchemist on a constant quest for truth. my destiny is as of yet unclear, but i am still immature. i only want to learn as much as i can before i die. minimalism, naturalism and a few other isms define me ...