U.N. food agency begins free food distribution for people in Niger

NIAMEY, Niger -- The U.N. food agency inaugurated a program Friday to help feed hundreds of thousands of people in Niger as the impoverished West African nation struggles to recover from severe shortages.

Scant rainfall and locusts ruined crops two years ago and Niger suffered through a massive food crisis in 2005. Crop yields picked up last year but food stores are again dwindling ahead of this year's harvest.

The World Food Program said it would begin distributing cereals Friday to 650,000 people.

"Recovery from a year as difficult as 2005 does not happen overnight," Sory Ouane, the agency's Niger director, said in a statement.

"A significant proportion of the population are still struggling to get back on their feet, despite what was a good harvest at the end of last year. They need a safety net and, together with the government, we are providing it," he said.

West Africa is entering its annual "lean season," when crops from the previous year are exhausted and a fresh harvest is months away. Prices of staple foods soar, leaving many of the region's most vulnerable people at risk of malnutrition.

2005 was a particularly difficult year across the West African countries that sit on the fringe of the Sahara Desert, but hunger is chronic and many in the region complain that help only arrives after television images of thin babies are broadcast overseas.

Humanitarian workers say the problems are endemic and need long-term solutions, such as widespread development and irrigation schemes. Only 10 percent of the land in Niger, with 12 million people, is currently arable. Most food is imported.

"The main challenge now is a long term one -- helping to support social and economic development in Niger," Ouane said.

Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso are in similar straits, leaving many millions of people exposed to periods of potentially deadly hunger each year.