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Subscribe to RSSA million and a half children are in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports on the crisis in the heart of the region, Niger. Warning: Some of the images in this report are distressing.
One-and-a-half-million children are in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa, according to The United Nations Children's Fund, despite recent pledges of international aid.
As world leaders gathered for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, aid workers warned there were only four weeks left to treat the effects of acute hunger before the rainy season makes huge swathes of the Sahel region inaccessible.
Across western Africa, communities are caught between climate change, conflict and poverty -- yet the global economic crisis means international priorities lie elsewhere.
For example, during its financial crisis Greece has received a hundred times more from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than Niger during the last few years.
Analysis: Mali coup shakes cocktail of instability in Sahel
In hospitals here in southern Niger, a crisis is developing. Many children are at serious risk of dying and for each bed there is a skeletal frame as yet another hunger crisis strikes.
Hair turned red by hunger
Patients include a girl, Amina, whose hair has turned red by a lifetime without enough food, and Ibrahim, an eight-month-old whose tiny body is consumed by the effects of severe malnutrition.
From many miles around, more young patients arrive all the time -- more work for the doctors who've rarely seen anything like this.
Women complain about a lack of rain, but also about a lack of food. Their families may not survive the coming months, they say.
Twenty years later, will world make good on Rio Earth Summit's 'broken promises'?
“What you’re looking at are communities across wide areas that need assistance because, despite best efforts, they have been pushed off their ability to cope,” said Martin Dawes, regional spokesman for UNICEF.
Some help is here: The international response has been swifter than it has been in the past. Earlier this month, the United States pledged over $81 million in additional assistance.
But this is a crisis across many counties, affecting many millions, leaving many lives on a knife-edge – and the U.N. has already said it needs another $1.5 billion to tackle the problem.
The months ahead are crucial here, amid grim warnings about more dry weather, even an influx of locusts. The world has been warned.
Editor's note: Yahaman, the eight-month-old boy featured in our video report on the hunger crisis in Niger died late Tuesday night.
Rohit Kachroo is NBC News' Africa Correspondent. Additional editing by Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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This same thing is coming to America, and don't think its not. The administration and the government that is now here in America is just like the government in Africa, they are self serving and could careless about anyone except themselves. Groceries prices are rising, people are losing their jobs, and if you do have a job, there is barely any raises if any.
Whoever is going over to these countries and taking these pictures needs to feed these children. I know they can. The UN is the governing body of areas of the world that needs to be sure how the world turns. We cannot be in all places at all times helping everyone. Everyone has a hand out, even in America. When God created this earth, he also created tons of food that is very easy to grow if you are vigilant. No one has to go hungry, ever, especially in this day and age. People have to be educated not to live in areas that you cannot grow food. Marauders need to be stopped. Governments have to know they cannot dictate to us who grows what so they can Wall street trade easier. We all need to be able to take care of ourselves and others and this is very easy, but you need to get out of the grasp of the ones who rule over "free" countries such as ours. Everyone should be given the land and the means to grow and share. That is why communes are frowned on. They allow people to see that they really don't need a big brother from a plastic world. They can do for themselves just fine.
Got news for you.... God did not create Earth. Grow up. Think....
This is one reason we need to quit giving money to everyone and use our money only for disasters and humanitarian purposes. Don't give all those Muslim countries any money to fight each other. Let them fight it out. Don't send money to starving countries. Only food and medicine. Africa has a lot of natural resources but are still fighting over tribal reasons or where there are Muslims, they still attack and kill Christians and sometimes other Muslims. Education and birth control are necessary. They need a policy like China. No more than 1 or 2 children. The condition of several countries' economies are such that a large natural disaster may be more devasting than usual. I am getting old now and there have been starving children in Africa ever since I can remember. When I was young our church used to send food and clothing to "the starving children in Africa".
I heard recently that Bono will surpass Paul McCartney in wealth because of his Facebook investments - to the tune of 1.5 Billion dollars. Now I only need about 3 million to retire comfortably. So then 30 times that for Bono would be 30 million. 1.5 Billion = 1500 million dollars. So, even if Bono keeps 1000 million, he will still have 500 million to give away - so please, please Bono give that away first before you exhort anyone to do so - if you really care about world hunger. (Same to Clooney and the rest of them).
I think we need to tell pakistan to sent part of the 1.5 billion we give them each year......
It is not starvation!! that is what the do gooders call it! It is called natual selection. which I support
I will donate 10 cases of condoms myself to the people of Africa just to stop feeding the breeding!!
You know what else the ones we have over here should kissing my arse for my fore fathers rescuring them from an impending death by starvation, and providing them with wmeaningful work,then educating, clothing and feeding them and taking care of them. You call it slavery, I call it meaning full work!
Read your bible the people of africa have been the lowest of the low since biblical times.
We need to cut all ties with africa and let mother nature work her magic!
Expressed kind of coarsely but You're right that blacks should be happy they were brought here. I have a neighbor from Nigeria. He and his six brothers were forced to fight for the militia. He and one brother survived. Then he came home, married, had 3 young sons. The sons were killed when Muslims set fire to the school killing all within. His wife's throat was cut when she rushed down to the school. Despite all this he bacame a teacher and his brother a lawyer.
What is really sad is that the more we feed them the more they will make to be fed. It is a vicious circle. BTW: The starvation's in Africa have nothing to do with European colonization. If anything they should have learned from whites that you do not have more kids than you can afford. The world is overpopulated and if we just let it go on we all will suffer the same fate.
They need an old fashioned tribal war along with some ethnic cleansing or a new killer virus to bring the population back down to a manageable size.
Maybe they can institute a no-bag limit for west Africans. I can see some British hunting parties with agressive dog breeds scaring Dikembe Mutombo out of his hiding place in the brush. No more 419 scams for you, Mr. Mutombo!
Remember when we did this I gave, I gave and I gave again, but never again..... Stop having sex, put on a Condom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI
Obama is going to let them in the US so they can vote for him. All jokes aside may God help the little ones.
God? What would it say about this god if it were *really* there watching this suffering. What a beast!
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Epicurus
Africa has been like that since time began, they are too stupid to help themselves, When the British were in Rhodesia it was "The Bread Basket of Africa" with roads rail bridges so they thought they could rule themselves Ha HA look where they are now.
It is natures way of population growth and not just humans,
Uh-oh, looks like it's handout time. We can't even keep our own fed, I don't give a hoot about Niger - it's their mess, let them clean it up. Maybe in the process they'll learn how to be a nation.
1.5 million children dead = many more million of people not existing on this earth only to die in the future.
Let nature run its course. Stop feeding a population that can't take care of itself because you'll have the burden of feeding a population several times larger in short order!
We are doing that now, we have been doing it for fifty or more years.
You can not have an argument, that's debate for those of you who are too stupid to know, about this because the do-gooders are trained in what passes for education in America, the Socialist/Fascist (look it up) based educational system. This is a system of social engineering that teaches them, from pre-school through unnecessary college, lies, junk science, junk history, that White people are bad, and a hundred other forms of deception and self-deprecation. And it intentionally does not teach them the tools that they need to survive in the world, off government welfare. Because they can not support any argument with facts, they forever will always toss out that catch-all phrase that is supposed to mean something important; it only means that they have no argument, no idea, no clue, ya but!
For all of you do-gooders, of whatever stripe, all of you who think or believe that this is our problem, or has anything to do with us, I suggest that you, the bleeding hearts, the do-gooders, take food from your own kids, leave me and mine alone, and support your little herd of Africans, yourselves!
I, along with a great many people will be letting nature take its course.
By the way. For all of you who want to make it the churches, take your pick, fault, or educations fault, or any other BS thing at fault; they breed like rats because it feels good.
Gang rapes, are a good indication that nothing has changes since they, with help from the Muslims, were enslaving one-another and selling each-other to North and South America. Africans, was Africa's cash crop, now they are a petulance.
We would expect no less from you.
The sad thing about this article is that it could have been seen, virtually unchanged, in any news source for the past fifty years. Many billions of dollars and countless man-centuries of relief work have been given to sub-Saharan Africa by the civilized world, yet the situation only keeps getting worse. The Jacksons, the Sharptons, and the Farrakhans of the world love to blame the white man and his colonialism for all the troubles. But if a country and its people are unable to establish a decent lifestyle after all this time, money, and effort, then I think their problems are pretty much self-inflicted. Fifty years of welfare, medicaid, food stamps, and other Great Society social programs have only bred a deep dependency for most of the recipients, and the same thing is going on in sub-Saharan AFrica.
At a weekend HIV/AIDS conference at the Vatican, the Catholic Church stood firm on its stance against the use of condoms to protect against the transmission of HIV.
You do realize these people are largely uneducated and victims of the so called well meaning 'missionaries' who advise them against the use of condoms. That stupidity, along with corrupt political agendas, gang rapes, lack of general education, and twisted beliefs about HIV, keeps the birth rate high among these people who really DO NOT KNOW better. A 14 yr old girl, impregnated by a gang rape, does not wish to be in that situation voluntarily. Why don't you think with some compassion instead of ridicule and contempt? The problems here are magnificent in scope and largely caused by outside influences of the developed countries.
Oh don't get me started. The Catholic Cult has always had an agenda.....
We have to put Catholic Church on trial for crimes against humanity. But unfortunately american and European politicians are traitors they sold themselves to religious mafia. We must change the politicians, no more republicans, and no more democrats. They are 2 sides of the same coin.
Oh yeah right. It's the Catholic Church's fault. Ridiculous! Then how comeAmerican Catholics don't have that problem and European Catholics have a negative population growth rate and the only ones mass reproducing there are the African and middle eastern Muslims? It has much more to do with the black culture there, and here. Guys could just pull out, or not rape, be oversexed, etc. Stop blaming everyone else. I, tho, too am in favor of giving them condemns, not that they would use them. Not macho enough.
People are going to be so rude here.
I have never understood how the USA can justify billions of $$$ each year to the Middle East, American lives, even at the expense of our own economy. But Africa- with it's extremes- Extreme loss of life to starvation, extreme violence against their own women and children- where are the UN/USA peace keepers?
I'm not leading a new charge , I'm quite aware that many of you will challenge me to go there and do something. I'm questioning the intentions or lack thereof.
You can't just give money to the leaders because they will keep it and build another palace for themselves. They are the reason thier people are starving. The only thing you can do is go in and take them out with the military. Oh wait you probably went ballistic when we did that in Iraq. It's a probelm with no quick and dirty solution like throwing money at the problem.
If you could develop a technology that could boil down 1.5 west african children into gasoline it would be very financially rewarding for yourself, boost the economy of the USA, and substantially help West Africa in the process.
If you don't understand how oil impacts the USA economy and how western Africa is just a bunch of starving people whose nations possess the birth highest rates on Earth....I really don't know what to say to you.
Chuck I supported the war so don't pretend to understand how "Ballistic" I was at any moment because you are making assumptions. I am not looking for a quick and dirty solution, and I am not stupid enough to assume money is the answer. Sammy -kind of a twisted remark- those children didn't ask to be born. I think massive birth control is the answer for many countries, but we live in a world that wants the human right to mass procreate respected. Mass vasectomies and possibly castration for those who rape may be a more reasonable solution. That means most of the men there would be castrated but so be it.
Stop popping out kids that you have absolutely no means to provide for!
I don't get it. I keep reading these articles of how people in Africa are homeless and starving, and how we should send aid to help them out. Am I missing something here? Aren't there people in the U.S. in a similar situation, although not as severe? We have kids here who have been starving, and now we have families who are homeless because of our economic issues, and the media is doing reports o how kids in Africa are staving? First of all, their leaders need to step up and do something about persistent starvation issues and anything else they can't seem to resolve by themselves. When the U.S. is in a crisis it seems that we're the ones who are sending money TO other countries instead of receiving aid. We need to be focus on our issues FIRST BEFORE helping others. Just like this b.s. with Pakistan. How much money were we sending them every year and now look what's happened? They're being a-holes and think that WE are the bad guys for killing bin Laden. The mindset of our government is all messed up. Those politicians need to get their heads out of the sand and fix the issues we have here and strengthen our economy instead of handing out money like it's candy to other countires.
What everyone forgets is that people in the third world have children to care for them in old age. With the instability in their lives and lack of resources they cannot feel secure enough to reach zero population growth. If a woman has 5 kids and only 1 lives due to starvation, it is pretty difficult to say that I will only have one kid when chances are that kid will die.
ace, that is why I say that that big, bad one-child policy in China seems to be desperately needed in Africa as well. In China, the problem is that the one child must be a boy, to support his parents, but I have heard that the policy is still working out pretty well.
So!
Note to ignoramuses who suggest that people like me be removed from the gene pool: If people like me are removed from the gene pool, no meaningful work will be done. If people like you are removed from the gene pool, the pool will finally be clean again.
Who's an ignoramuse? Anyone who doesn't agree with your views?
No, that is the job description of the Racist, Bigots, known as the Socialist/Liberal/Fascist, like you!
Dear Newsvine friends,
First I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. I can purchase the foodstuffs that can adequately feed the entire 1.5 million starving children.
However, I am unable to withdraw the funds from my bank due to the evil regime in control of the national bank which have placed a hold on my personal account. I have US$125,440,000 which can only be released to a third party......
We need to start sending them birth control and we need to stop upsetting the balance of nature. We've created this mess by violating "survival of the fittest". Now we have a huge amount of people who can't take care of themselves. Economies are collapsing and countries need to keep their money close to home, unfortunately this is what happens. Sending them food is like shoveling sand. Sad.
Hey wait a minute! How about the 214 million American People starving to death because of the corrupt Republican corporate MONARCHY that has MADE SLAVES of them! Who's going to take care of us!
What in the hell is going on! We, the 99% American People are broke from bailing out these corrupt Republican corporates who have been stealing from us long enough!
99% American People, vote STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, the lives you save WILL be YOURS & your CHILDREN! Let's rid our selves of their corruption ONCE & FOR ALL!
TR, I am a lifelong loyal Democrat myself...but saying that 214 million Americans are starving to death is absurd.
Yes. Relect the first president of hollywood. Oh forget to mention he shots a mean game of golf as well.
This problem has festered for centuries in that part of the world. There is no responsibility among the leaders and fighting never stops.
Gee, so maybe that cruel and horrible one-child policy in China is not so awful, after all. As I understand it, the Africans have six or eight children in the hopes that one or two will survive to support them. In China, that surviving child has to be a boy, which is why the mothers of daughters try so hard to defy the law. Either way, the one-child policy may be the only answer. I mean, we were all horrified by the picture of the Chinese woman lying sadly in bad after a forced abortion (need I add that the one child she already had was a girl?) But this photo of a starving African baby seems to me a lot worse.
I'm sorry.......SO AS MANY OF AMERICANS!!!!! For over 50 years of my life, these countries have been plague with this problems...and all the rest of the world have ALWAYS helped them. They have done and given NOTHING for America!
It's time for AMERICA TO TAKE CARE OF AMERICA!! Sounds mean? You darn right....to bad so sad.
and i bet my life you are "Pro-Life"
And those commercials are so made up. They show many children eating and going to school with new shoes on. You would think all that money over the decades has helped. It's just a facade.
That is a million and some babies that should never have been born. Unless you are of the religious mind that God put these babies here to suffer to show us how bad we are.
It long past the time that they stop having babies they can't feed, and expect the rest of the world to feed for them.
We have sick and staving people in this country, but all you hear about is the obese reports because it is not as offense as showing us pictures of our own starving and living on pet food like the elderly.
I don't give on dime to any organisation that support these people.
All it has done for the past 50 years is make them less responsible for the children they have. They know show a baby or two on the news and all the bleeding heart Democrats act like it's our fault.
It is not my fault that they do not practice birth control and have 10 babies instead of one and take care of that baby.
This is why our foreign aid money is money down the toilet. It does nothing to help these people.
It makes them depended on other countries and they never want to get out of the 3 world status.
Why should they? They believe the American tax payer was put on this earth to provide for kids they never should have had.
Steven-
How do you afford birth control if you can't afford to feed the children you already have?
How about the old tried and true method of crossing your legs?
Ya don't need birth control...if you practice SELF control!
Harley and Doby-
That assumes that sex is the woman's choice. And it rarely is.
Before we help all of these starving people in other countries (who refuse to actually do something for themselves other than kill each other off), maybe we should focus on the kids/people starving in our OWN country.