Uranium-producing Niger, perched on the Sahara’s southern rim, is one of the world’s poorest nations. With a northern nomadic Tuareg population similar to the one that rebelled in Mali this year, it is seen as vulnerable to uprisings.

The money is due to be spent on strengthening law and enforcement and border controls in an area where government authority is weak and traffickers and gunmen, some with links to al Qaeda, operate.

Funds will also target improving basic social services and infrastructure in the six most northern regions, where underdevelopment has led to previous rebellions.

Both Mali and Niger were threatened by the return home of thousands of gunmen who had fought for Muammar Gaddafi during Libya’s conflict last year.

While Mali’s north has since been over-run by rebels, Niger has so far contained any threat. It has disarmed its returnees and ensured better representation in government for the Tuareg community, which has rebelled before over the lack of development and demands for a greater share of resource wealth.

The new plan, known as SDS/Sahel-Niger, will cost 1.266 trillion CFA francs ($2.49 billion), according to Prime Minister Brigi Raffini, himself a Tuareg, who launched the initiative late on Monday.

At least half of the program will be funded by the government in Niamey while the European Union has pledged a further 91.6 million euros ($118 million), according to documents seen by Reuters. It was not immediately clear where the rest of the money would come from.

Niger hosts mining projects run by French nuclear power giant Areva and, with investments from China National Nuclear Corporation, the country has also recently become an oil producer.

Yet it also faces recurrent drought-related food shortages and struggles to feed its rapidly growing population, currently at around 16 million.

Niger has become of increasing strategic importance after Mali’s Tuareg rebellion was taken over by a mix of local and foreign Islamists. A coup in Mali’s capital, Bamako, has hamstrung any foreign efforts to tackle Mali’s crisis.

The EU already has a team of security experts in Niger trying to help the authorities tackle organized crime and terrorism.

Niger’s last Tuareg rebellion ended in 2009 but the former fighters who laid down their weapons are still waiting for the projects that are meant to help them find jobs.

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The post ALERTNET: Niger Launches $2.5 Plan to Secure, Develop North first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Drought and political instability have led to a major food crisis affecting 18 million people across West Africa. Serious flooding, a deadly cholera outbreak and the conflict in neighboring Mali have exacerbated the situation. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently made a plea for international aid to alleviate the crisis.

“Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and they have been the hardest hit,” said AmeriCares Emergency Response Manager Karl Erdmann, who recently returned from the region. “More than one-third of the population has been affected, including 400,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. They are not equipped to care for the tens of thousands of refugees crossing the border from Mali, and they are quickly running out of food and medical supplies.”

The medicines and relief supplies from AmeriCares will be distributed by a partner organization providing medical care in refugee camps. The recent shipments are AmeriCares second delivery for the Sahel crisis. In August, AmeriCares sent medical aid and 2.5 million sachets of P&G water purification packets to Mali on a humanitarian aid flight coordinated by the global logistics company UPS.

AmeriCares has been responding to natural disasters, disease outbreaks and crushing poverty for 30 years, delivering medicines and relief supplies that restore health and save lives. In 2005, during one of the one worst food shortages in Niger’s history with 2.5 million people facing starvation, AmeriCares airlifted more than 30,000 pounds of medical aid to clinics and feeding centers treating malnourished children and adults.

About AmeriCares
AmeriCares is a nonprofit global health and disaster relief organization that delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in need around the world and across the United States. Since it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $10 billion in humanitarian aid to 164 countries. For more information, visit americares.org.

Salesian Missions is a proud partner of AmeriCares.

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PHOTO: UNHCR/H. Caux (representative photo, taken near Mali/Niger border earlier this year)

See related MissionNewswire article on Salesian Missions’ work related to this emergency:
(July 19, 2012) MALI: Salesians Assist Displaced Children & Families as Political Instability Continues

The post AmeriCares: Emergency Aid Headed to Niger for Sahel Crisis first appeared on MissionNewswire.