Drought-hit Niger faces 'worst hunger crisis in living memory'

NIGER is facing the worst hunger crisis in its history, with almost half the country's population in desperate need of food and up to one in six children suffering from acute malnutrition, aid officials said yesterday.

Malek Triki, West Africa spokesman for the United Nations' World Food Programme, said villagers in Niger are describing the situation as worse than in 2005, when aid organisations treated tens of thousands of children for malnutrition, and worse even than 1973, when thousands died.

"What they are saying is that this is the worst crisis in living memory," Triki said.