struck West African nation where 80,000 people are reportedly starving and a million more are at risk, officials said. Christian human rights group Barnabas Fund told BosNewsLife that Niger Christians managed to contact its organization "to ask for urgent assistance". The United Nations World Food Program’s country director for Niger, Giancarlo Cirri, reportedly called the situation "some of the worst hunger I have ever witnessed."
"Christians form less than one percent of the population of the Muslim-majority country Niger. Experience in other countries shows that tiny Christian minorities like this tend to suffer disproportionately in any crisis," said Barnabas Fund’s International Director Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo.
"I urge Christians around the world to remember their brothers and sisters in the Lord at this time. As you give to help the starving in Niger, please direct some of your help through Barnabas Fund for the Christians," he added.
PRAYERS URGED
Sookhdeo said he had urged Barnabas Fund supporters to also "pray for the famine victims in Niger, especially the children, that help will get to them quickly and effectively." He also asked prayers "for the small Christian community in Niger that their needs will be provided for."
He said it was important to "pray that they will find peace and hope in the Lord and be able to bring encouragement and help to others." The United Nations was to airlift 44 tons of emergency food rations to famine-stricken Niger Thursday, July 28, the Cable News Network (CNN) reported.
The emergency rations will reportedly be flown from Italy into the capital of Niamey, where a convoy of trucks will carry the supplies more than 400 miles (660 kilometers) south to Maradi, one of the hardest-hit areas.
POOR SEASON
UN experts say Niger is suffering from a poor rainy season and devastation to its crops and grazing land from the worst locust invasion in 15 years. The World Food Program reportedly plans to deliver 23,000 tons of food to 19 famine-stricken districts in Niger over a five-week period.
International food aid began arriving last week, too late for many. At a nutritional center in Maradi, 48-year old Soulima Ouseman told CNN her four daughters starved to death, and she cannot remember the last time she ate a real meal.
"We were left with no choice but to eat leaves and grass in the bush," she said. "But even here we’re still hungry. Please help us."
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds to develop its resource base, experts say. The largely agrarian and subsistence-based economy of over 11 million people is reportedly frequently disrupted by extended droughts, common to the Sahel region of Africa. (With BosNewsLife Research, Stefan J. Bos and reports from Niger)
