More Than 2 Million in Niger Face Humanitarian Crisis, UN Agency Says 

GENEVA - The U.N. Children’s Fund is urging the international community to pay more attention to Niger, where more than 2 million people are malnourished and living in dire conditions.

More than 3.8 million people in Niger, more than half children, are facing a humanitarian crisis because of a combination of natural and human-caused disasters. Niger, a landlocked country, is facing attacks by Islamist militants and other armed groups along its borders with Nigeria in the south, Burkina Faso in the southeast, Mali in the west and in the Lake Chad region in the east. This has led to significant displacements in the country and is creating havoc for hundreds of thousands of children. Besides conflict, the U.N. Children’s Fund reports Niger is dealing with food shortages, malnutrition, recurrent epidemics, climate-related disasters such as floods and drought, and the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.