NAIROBI: A British aid plane carrying food took off for famine-stricken Niger on Wednesday as Britain’s development secretary, Hilary Benn, admitted that the international system had failed the country. Even after widespread publicity drew global attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands short of food in one of the world’s poorest countries, the relief effort remains short of funding.

The UN’s World Food Programme said on Wednesday that despite an increase in donations, its $16m (£9m) relief operation for Niger had confirmed donations of only $9m, amounting to a shortfall of more than 40 per cent.

Mr Benn called for the creation of a UN emergency fund to immediately tackle crises as they arose. He told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “What we have at the moment — it’s a bit like a fire breaks out and then people get on the phone and ring up the various donors and say ‘Can you give us some money so we can buy a fire engine? Can you give us some money so we can recruit firefighters?’ The current system doesn’t work. We need a better system.”

The famine in Niger was triggered by a wretched harvest after poor rains and an infestation of locusts. As it is, four-fifths of northern Niger is desert, with little agriculture practised, and the country relies heavily on the savanna areas in the south, which are suitable for livestock and crops.

Aid agencies said that as many as 4 million of the population of 12 million might be affected by the crisis. Tens of thousands of children risk death by starvation. High prices for cereals and low prices for livestock have further impoverished people already living a delicately balanced existence.

The UN is seeking $500m for a central fund to launch emergency relief campaigns as soon as there are warning signs of trouble. Their head of emergency relief, Jan Egeland, said last week that if the world had responded as soon the warnings had been received, it would have cost $1 a day to save the life of one malnourished child..—Dawn/The Guardian News Service