Word: niger
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Today, famine is rampant in Ethiopia, the African nations of the Sahel (Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta), Gambia and in areas of Tanzania and Kenya. Near famine also plagues Bolivia, Syria, Yemen and Nigeria. One poor harvest could bring massive hunger to India, the Sudan, Guyana, Somalia, Guinea and Zaire. In two dozen other nations, the populace faces chronic food shortages. Among them: Bangladesh, Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti...
...ration is only 26 Ibs. of flour and 4.4 Ibs. of dried milk, the nutritional equivalent of about one-third of the average American's diet. In their weakened condition, disease has spread quickly. Typhus, dysentery, measles and gastroenteritis are rampant. At the teeming Lazaret camp near Niamey, Niger's capital, cholera threatens the 15,000 refugees. In Chad, some emaciated nomads begged a U.N. official not to send them medicines, pleading that death from diphtheria was quicker and hence easier than the slower death from starvation...
Though the aid has been lifesaving, it has not been as effectively used as it could be. Inefficiency and corruption of local bureaucrats have slowed the distribution of the emergency supplies. In Mali and Niger, officials have diverted some of the donated grain to commercial channels for sale at enormous profits. Much of the donated food remains heaped high on the docks where it is prey to rats, locusts and thieves. The major problem, however, is logistics. U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, after inspecting the famine areas in February, reported: "I saw piles of foodstuffs in the capitals...
...globe are actually doomed to such drastic weather changes, then the outlook is bleak indeed. Political unrest and even civil wars will become more likely as whole countries go hungry. In the past year, discontent spurred by food shortages contributed to the sudden changes of government in Niger and Thailand, and it threatens the reign of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia...
With as much as 80% of the nation's 4 million cattle dead and tens of thousands of its 4.3 million people dying of starvation, Niger seems to fit the ominous pattern Waldheim described in his warning. But diplomats insisted that more than the drought was involved in the coup. They speculated that France had capitalized on the discontent caused by the drought and encouraged the overthrow. A prime reason: Niger has plenty of high-grade uranium, valued at not less than $1 billion...