Niger: Junta to provide free food to one million

Niger's military government has started an unprecedented drive to distribute free food to one million of the nearly 10 million of its population facing hunger due to failed rains last year, it has announced. The United Nations said late last month donors had only covered a third of the $190 million aid needed to stave off a possible famine in the West African state, which consistently ranks among the poorest nations in the world.