Toby Porter, Save the Children’s Director of Emergencies has spoken out against the slow response of the international community to the Niger food crisis.
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"The United Nations made an appeal in May for $18m. That's small change in international aid terms, but there was little response. It is only in the past few days, once television cameras brought the images of starving children into people's homes, that proper funding has come in.

"There is late and there is too late. We are now racing so that our relief is not too late for Niger's children. It's not good enough. The public does not want to see this happen. We are not prepared to sit back and watch this horror coming through our television screens.

"There is no war in Niger, no rebel groups, no despots, no problems getting the aid in, it is just poverty. And kids are starving to death. It is simply because so many people in Niger are desperately poor, so many people living below the poverty line that a small shock creates a humanitarian disaster."

Toby has also pointed out that Niger's crisis "began at precisely the time of the Live 8 concerts and the G8 meeting at Gleneagles, yet the world could not find the money needed to intervene. It is sad and unacceptable."

Nick Abrahams, our team manager in Maradi, one of the two regions in which we are currently operating, has said the number of children needing food is rising rapidly.

"All I see is a lot of children who need urgent assistance and I want to get it to them as soon as possible. We also need to get rations to their families, so their older brothers and sisters avoid severe malnourishment."

The West African country of Niger has been plunged into crisis by a lethal combination of poor rainfall in 2005 and a locust infestation.