Chloé Dessemond, CARE International
The village of N’Guelbély, 170 km North of Diffa, is surrounded with sand dunes. Scattered houses made of straw look naked. The straw has been eaten by the few cows that survived the pastoral and food crisis which is currently affecting Niger, following a bad rainy season in 2009.
Usually, pastoralists of N’Guelbély move around their village, but this year, they had to go further to find pasture land to feed their livestock. In October, they started moving North until they reached an area known here as “angle of death”. This land located between the territories of two ethnic groups has no supply market or local authorities. Trapped there, without pasture land, pastoralists tried to go back South in February. But many animals, too weak to move, died on the way or were left behind. Omarou Moumouni lost one third of his livestock in the North or on the way back. But coming back to a village which he had left months ago was not a relief. Without pasture land, another third of his original livestock had died in N’Guelbely. In Diffa region, 80% of the total livestock is estimated to have died. A couple of weeks ago, Omarou received animal feed distributed by CARE in the area. The 150 kg will enable him to hold out until the rain falls.
Some didn’t get as lucky. Still trapped in the North, with no possibility to get supply, their survival is at stake. CARE, the only operating NGO in this remote land, stuck between the sky and the desert, now covered with dead animals, and where even camels are too weak to stand, carried out food distributions and just got an emergency supply of 60 MT of cereals, that will be transported along the transhumance route to the North, and distributed to vulnerable pastoralists.
South of the region, in Goujou, rain started to fall. Except for the sand dunes, which keep on moving forward the pastoral and agriculture land, the landscape is green. Scattered makeshift camps, or rather small piles of items, and tarpaulins, show that hundreds of pastoralists brought their livestock to the site. The pasture land is indeed covered with goats and cows. But this picture is misleading. The grass is not sufficient compared to the high concentration of pastoralists. Moreover, it is mixed with sand and becomes an additional cause of death for already weak animals.
Idi Abdou used to have 42 animals before the crisis. Now, he has only 17 left. He comes from Bonsoro, about a hundred kilometres north from here, and, with his son, he travelled to Nigeria to find pasture land before coming to Goujou. Because of the bad condition of the cattle, the price of the animals has fallen. Therefore, in order to buy food, Idi Abdou had to sell all of his goats and more cows than usual. A couple of days ago, CARE launched an animal destocking operation. Buying weak animals at a better price than on the market enables pastoralists to maintain their purchasing power. Moreover, the meat is distributed to those households for free. CARE bought an animal from Idi Abdou who therefore got 8 times the money he would have had on the market.
“If CARE wasn’t there, there wouldn’t be many people helping us”, asserts the chief of N’Guelbely village, “we experienced big crisis before, like in 1973 and we had less assistance then. But this year, the situation is worst than ever.” This crisis, which seriously affects the pastoralists of Niger, raises many questions concerning their future.
In N’Guelbély, discussions on the topic are enlivened. “Pastoral life is different nowadays”, says one villager, “we need to find other solutions, diversify our activities.” Other people suggest alternatives to pastoral life. Hadamou Moumouni lost 79 animals this year. He has only one left. “For me, pastoral life is over. My children will have to make their own way. They can do anything, except livestock farming. They will probably go to the urban centres and start a small business.” Boucar Souley, met in Goujou, has only 10 animals left out of 70. Breeding animals died. This put a threat on the replacement of the herd and on the life of pastoralists for whom milk is a staple food. Boucar travels with 7 of the 20 members of his family, and thinks about moving again in the next few days in his constant search for pasture land. But after that, “I really don’t know what to do”, he admits.
For those pastoralists, the crisis has maybe just begun…