Black People : After all the oil found in West Africa, Starvation Looms; time to nationalize

[Ankhur]

No one can balance another brother or sisters bank account but after all of the oil reserves found in West Africa, that AFRICOM, is more then likely seeking to swoop on for certain corporations, maybe it is time for the few nations to unify for the benefit of the people and nationalize their oil reserves

Warning of Famine in West Africa


by Barry Mason


Global Research, June 12, 2010
World Socialist Web Site - 2010-06-11


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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 10 million people across the Sahel region of West Africa could face famine over the next few months. According to the charity Oxfam, eight million in Niger could be affected and two million in Chad. Some 80 percent of Chad’s population depends on subsistence agriculture.

The threat of famine is growing across the region. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and even Northern Nigeria are already experiencing food shortages. The strategic grain reserve in Nigeria is 65,000 tonnes short. There are reports of people crossing the Niger border into Nigeria in search of food. This is an area that has experienced communal clashes over resources.

“The Sahel is one of the most destitute regions in the world, and the spectre of hunger is pushing increasing numbers of people from the countryside into the cities, where they are searching for food to feed their families”, said Thomas Yanga of the WFP.

Nomadic herders in Niger have been particularly badly hit. At the end of the year they start to move south to look for grazing for their animals, but because of irregular rainfall there is insufficient pasture. Some have resorted to selling their animals, but are getting low prices because of their poor condition.

Warnings of a possible food emergency have been sounded since the beginning of the year. Brian O’Neill, regional director of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Organisation, toured the area in January.

He said, “Erratic rains in the 2009/2010 agricultural season have resulted in an enormous deficit in food production…. You are talking about a crisis of enormous proportions…. If we work fast enough, early enough, it will not be a famine. If we don’t move, there is a strong risk it could be happening”.

He estimated that more than US$220 million would be needed to avert a food crisis. A leaked Niger government document confirmed O’Neill’s concerns. It forecast that half the population would experience food shortages in the coming year.

The West African countries facing food shortages are all in the Sahel region running along the southern edge of the Sahara desert. They are subject to erratic rainfall, but experts consider that global warming is exacerbating water shortage. The irregular rainfall in the 2009 rainy season has meant a shortage of pasture and poor harvests.

The current near-term outlook map for West Africa of the United States Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning System shows large swathes of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad as being highly food insecure. The medium-term outlook map shows a big area within Niger as extremely food insecure.

An Oxfam report of May 20 states that this year’s harvest in Niger is around three-quarters of last year’s and that in the Diffa region in the east and Tillabery region in the west there was no harvest. The harvest in Chad is down a third on last year.

Mamadou Biteye, an Oxfam regional director, recalled the experience of the famine of 2005. “In 2005, the world ignored warning signs from Niger and lives were lost”. Some four million people were affected by that famine.

A UN Food and Agricultural Organisation special alert notice was issued on May 19. It warned, “The food situation is of grave concern in parts of the Sahel, notably in Niger”.

It pointed out that the region is still suffering from high prices sparked by speculation in food in 2008. It noted that the current drop in cereal and pasture production is taking place “against a backdrop of high food prices”.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19692

 

[Ankhur]

Oxfam says that eight million people are at risk in Niger, with a further two million in Chad in jeopardy, and that the situation is "going to get extremely bad". Too often in the past, food crises get attention only when there are dead bodies and distended bellies to film. The UN, aid agencies and governments are trying to sound a loud alarm before mass deaths start to occur.

Andrew Mitchell, Britain's new Secretary of State for International Development, said yesterday: "This report is deeply concerning. Although Britain does not have a direct relationship with Niger, we do have a £15m programme working through the UN and NGOs to alleviate the worst cases of extreme hunger in the region. We are watching the situation carefully."

The UN's humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said at the end of a four-day visit to neighbouring Chad that many Chadians have gone as far as Libya to search for food. "The level of malnutrition is already beyond the danger point," he said on Thursday. "If we do not act now, or as quickly as possible, there is a chance the food crisis will become a disaster."

In Niger, some say the growing food crisis could be worse than the one that struck the country in 2005, when aid organisations treated tens of thousands of children for malnutrition. "We have lost so much we cannot count," said one 45-year-old tribesman with a family of 20 to feed. He and others on Gadabeji Reserve drive starving donkeys through the burnt orange haze of a sandstorm to gather what little water they can on the desiccated plain and struggle to draw water from private wells.

Oxfam says this is potentially the worst year in a generation. Its humanitarian director, Jane Cocking, said yesterday: "It is a very serious situation. That doesn't mean that everyone will be starving and dying in the streets, but it would mean that millions would have only, say, one meal every two days – and that of very low nutritional value."

Across Niger, the harvest has fallen by 26 per cent compared with last year, with some areas, in both the east and west of the country, having a complete failure of crops. In Chad, harvests are down 34 per cent. Mamadou Biteye, Oxfam's West Africa regional director, has said: "We are witnessing an unfolding disaster which can be averted if the world acts swiftly. Five years ago, the world ignored the warning signs from Niger, failed to act rapidly and lives were lost." Oxfam will shortly launch a special appeal.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/10-million-face-famine-in-west-africa-1986875.html

 

[HyperKill]

Money is a system created by europeans to privledge and prioritise them above others. It is a tangible that should be intangible. With it you get love friends sharing and many other intangible things. It wont be until blacks understand this that we will rise above the money system

 

[Ankhur]

I hear you bro

Money is a system created by europeans to privledge and prioritise them above others. It is a tangible that should be intangible. With it you get love friends sharing and many other intangible things. It wont be until blacks understand this that we will rise above the money system

but the despots racking in the oil loot and letting the masses starve are well aware of that.

IMHO I think it's a matter of heart, when we start loving each other from nation to nation over there and put aside;
tribal,
religious,
class
and national differences among the 52 nations, then this will all change.

Nothing will change if we remain complacent and indeferent as Africans

 

[wetac0s]

Aid only cripples Africa - it reinforces the notion that Africans cannot help themselves. What they need is stability, infrastructure, investment, and agricultural development - not free handouts and "white guilt".