UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Niger

THE west African nation of Niger is suffering “an acute humanitarian crisis” in which children are dying because the world community has ignored appeals for urgent aid, the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday.

Jan Egeland said 2.5 million people in Niger are in desperate need of food, including 800,000 children who are malnourished.

Some 150,000 of those children "will die very soon because they are severely malnourished unless we really get to step up our operation".