Niger’s nightmare can end

We cannot afford to wait for an onslaught of harrowing images of dying people to realise a humanitarian crisis is looming in Niger. Liam Horan reports from Niger.

THE mother, no more than 25 years of age, places her eleven-month-old son on the clinic table. Like a merchant unfolding her goods, she slowly peels away his clothing to reveal the full extent of the child's frailty: he is little more than loose-hanging skin and tiny bones.

He cries weakly, the effort clearly straining his feeble body. His face is creased like that of an old man.