This is the beginning of the most critical period in the year and, four months away from the next harvest, all the indicators are already in the red. In order to avoid further increase in child mortality rates in the coming weeks, exceptional emergency measures must immediately be implemented. This is why MSF is calling for free food distributions in the villages that are most affected by malnutrition.
Quicktime August 18: In 2005, tens of thousands of seriously malnourished children will be treated by MSF. MSF is also treating 50,000 moderately malnourished children, preventing them from falling into a seriously malnourished state. This video shows the steps in place to get the necessary food to the people in need.
Windows Media version More from the BBC
"This child was severely malnourished when she arrived. She is one year old and weighs 3.6 kilos - which is what a child normally weighs at birth. We are taking in new cases every day ..... Here in intensive care there are at least two deaths a day... It is a lot. It's too many." Windows Media version Quicktime version
BBC report on the food crisis in Niger: "MSF says 250 severely malnourished children are treated (at the MSF facility) each week. Three times as many as last year."
BBC video
In the MSF clinic, in one day, 61 children under the age of five were admitted for emergency and not one weighed more than 3 kilos. For 14 of them, aid came too late and they died on the day they arrived.
BBC Video I:
