Red Cross Joins Aid Effort in Niger

The British Red Cross flew a logistics team to Niger yesterday, joining the growing international response to the famine in west Africa. Food rations from the United Nations started to arrive last week, but thousands of children are already suffering from hunger and Oxfam has warned that millions more face starvation.

The failure of the rains and a locust invasion have left 8 million people in the west African countries of Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso facing famine.

The British Red Cross emergency response unit will act as an advance party, assessing which areas need food and in what quantities. It will then report back to headquarters so that food and supplies can be sent to the area.

Miranda Bradley, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said the task was immense. "This is hugely serious. It's an every second counts situation, people are dying every day and aid will be needed to avoid a massive catastrophe. The sooner we can get out there and assess the situation, the sooner we can start saving lives," she said.

Oxfam said last week that about 3.6 million people, about a third of them children, face starvation in Niger. The UN estimates that about 800,000 children under five are suffering from hunger.