Outside Niamey

As I’ve mentioned before, Niger is experiencing a major food crisis…a topic of discussion everywhere I go, especially in the NGO/humanitarian world.  Much of my organization’s focus is on the food security situation and we are currently running several feeding/food distribution projects.  We launched one just last week in the Tilaberi region of Niger, north of Niamey, giving me the opportunity for my first glimpse of Niger outside of Niamey.  The excitement started before we left Niamey, even before we left the office.  Walking to work that morning, I turned the corner to see two Gendarmerie (army) pick-up trucks each loaded with 6 soldiers carrying guns sitting in the back plus two in the front cabs.  These were armed escorts to go before and behind our two NGO SUVs just for the trip an hour north of Niamey to attend a 15 minute ceremony to launch the food distribution program.  I, personally, had never experienced anything like it.  To that point, I had never felt unsafe at all so all I could think was ‘Is this really necessary?!’ As many of you know, I’m not a fan of weapons at all or even any kind of military force so as I stared at the gleaming gun barrels, I couldn’t help but be uneasy at the slightest thought of being in any kind of situation where these 16 gendarmes would be given the opportunity to use those guns.  You can imagine the scene we made everywhere we went that day…even just leaving Niamey with our flashing head and tail lights and the gendarmes stopping all traffic for us to go through. 

Anyway, I really was able to take my focus off the guns long enough to take in the landscape as we drove.  I could see first-hand the effects of deforestation and desertification in Niger.  Where crops once grew, sand was slowly but surely taking over, making the ground completely useless for growing much of anything.  My colleagues with me in the car explained the gradual process of soil becoming sand.  With a lack of trees and grass to stop the winds from carrying away the finer clay and dust from the soil, only sand remains.  No nutrients remain in sandy soil and water doesn’t soak but rather just runs off.  To add to this landscape, we passed a few livestock that had died probably due to starvation.  In this Muslim culture, unless an animal’s throat is slit to kill it, the meat can’t be eaten.  In other words, the meat of an animal that suffered before dying cannot be eaten…even as people themselves are struggling to find enough nutrients for their own bodies.  The ironies seen already as we were on our way to launch a feeding program…