Food aid finally arrives in famine-plagued Niger

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 7, 2005

NIAMEY, Niger – Crews unloaded boxes of high-energy biscuits from a cargo plane early Sunday as thousands of tons of food aid gradually arrived in this famished West African nation.

After months of little international response to growing food shortages, contributions have begun flowing, and so too finally has food.

The 38,000 tons of food expected to arrive over the next two weeks will be 12 times more than what previously had been available, said Stefanie Savariaud, spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program.

She cautioned that it would be weeks before enough feeding centers were open to reach the estimated 2.5 million people in need.