Food aid in Niger arrived too late in 2005, despite widespread predictions that famine was imminent. The world has known for months that famine is also coming to southern Africa but policymakers are still not responding to the warnings.
On 20th October 2003, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that desert locusts would cause damage in Niger and appealed for help. However, funds were not forthcoming until the plague was well under way and the FAO were still US$17 million short of their needs in May 2004. The locust invasion, the biggest in 15 years, combined with an early end to the rainy season, caused poor harvests - worse than the annual 'hungry season' - and led directly to the famine that began in January 2005.
Source: id21.
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