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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Lords of the Desert in Niger; Pleas for Food in Niger, All Passengers Survive Toronto Plane Crash, Record Hurricane Season?; Swarm of Destruction in Niger; Moroccan Military Troops Help in Niger; Air France Crash in Canada
Aired August 02, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Live from Maradi, Niger. I'm Anderson Cooper. The food crisis in Niger. Children starving in plain sight. A special edition of 360 starts now.
ANNOUNCER: "Starving in Plain Sight." Tonight, much more on Anderson Cooper's very personal journey to Niger. A plague of locust and a drought in one of the neediest parts of the world.
His "Reporter's Notebook", harsh land, fording muddy rivers to a remote village, Anderson searched to understand the short life of a courageous little boy.
Before the hunger crisis, what did we know about Niger? A murky connection between Saddam, uranium, the CIA and a mystery leading to the White House. Tonight, Ambassador Joe Wilson with his personal account of the Niger scandal.
And hurricanes: Dennis, Emily, and the newest forecast, worse than predicted.
This is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, with Anderson Cooper in Maradi, Niger, and Heidi Collins in New York.
COOPER: Good evening, again, from Maradi, Niger.
We're standing at a relief center set up by the organization Doctors Without Borders. It is one of many relief centers they have set up here in Maradi. Behind me is the intensive care ward. In this center there are some 200 children who are receiving desperately- needed care. They have some 300 or more outpatient children that they've been treating. They have been treating thousands of children here in Niger over the last five months or so of this crisis.
Niger is a country in the northwest of Africa. Maradi is the town where many relief groups have set up their facilities. It's about a 10 hour drive east of the capital of Niger, Niamey. It's close to the Niger border.
There is real crisis here. Some three-and-a-half million Nigerans are at risk of starvation according to aid groups. Some 800,000 of those are children. Thousands have already died.
Tonight, we're going to be taking a very up close look at some of the people who are struggling to survive here in Niger, valiant fights, and some of the relief workers who are working extraordinarily hard day and night to save lives. And they are doing a remarkable job of that -- not only distributing food, but intervening just in time to save young children's lives.
There are many different groups in Niger, many groups in need. We found one American woman working with a group OXFAM, a young woman from Texas, who's working with nomads in Niger and they have been particularly badly hit. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER, (voice over): In the shade of a thorny tree, a group of Nigeran nomads are waiting for help. For centuries Fulani tribesmen like these have been nomads, always on the move, living off their cattle. But now the cattle are dead. After months of drought and devastated crops, their entire herd is gone.
MARGIE REHM, OXFAM: They've lost 400 cows. They literally have nothing. So they've been waiting...
COOPER: That's Margie Rehm, a 31-year-old Texan who first came to Niger in the Peace Corps.
REHM: I asked how they're living without any cows and he translated and he said just with God.
COOPER: Margie now works with OXFAM, a British relief group, helping communities here cope with the current food crisis.
This is their house?
REHM: This is their house. Normally they would have a grass mat that goes over it, but because the grass didn't grow last year high enough, there's they don't have enough mats to cover them.
COOPER: So, I mean, everything they have is basically underneath this structure?
REHM: Yes.
COOPER: These nomads are down to their last bowl of food, sorghum, given to them by a nearby village. This mother tells Margie she has no options left.
REHM: This will last just today and they don't have anything for tomorrow.
COOPER: (INAUDIBLE) nothing for tomorrow.
REHM: No.
COOPER: Three mothers here have already lost children.
REHM: It's difficult to find solutions at this point.
COOPER: OXFAM has been trying to find solutions to hunger and poverty for years now. They don't want to just give handouts and make people dependent on aid, they want people to find ways to help themselves.
In a nearby village, a group of men work on a dried out well. Margie has also encouraged the nomads around here to dig holes to plant trees.
REHM: There used to be a lot of trees and basically everybody comes, they cut them and they sell the wood. And that's -- this is at least a lot what people -- how people are coping with the situation.
COOPER: Relief work is not easy. Everything gets debated, negotiated and finally translated. Everything takes time.
And the ones who you see most affected are children?
REHM: Children and older people. The children because when women don't eat enough, then they're not lactating and then they -- the children suffer.
COOPER: Margie has also set up a voucher program to encourage nomadic women to plant crops.
So you give out these vouchers?
REHM: Yes.
COOPER: If the women work for two weeks planting okra and other vegetables, OXFAM will pay them $1.25 a day. No cash, just this voucher.
REHM: These vouchers can then be exchanged every two weeks for staples -- millet, manioc, rice, oil.
COOPER: So you're giving them an incentive to plant now?
REHM: Right. Right.
COOPER: Farming is not something nomadic people in Niger ever do, but these are desperate times and they seem happy to try.
REHM: It's extremely rewarding to see people who are happy to work and they will be fed for the next two weeks. Even when people eat only one meal a day, they're still laughing and they're still smiling and they're still willing to even give you something and that's the really special thing about this country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: She is a remarkable young woman, one of the many relief workers here who are working in Niger. Doctors Without Borders, whose relief center we're in right now, says that they save about nine out of the 10 of the children who come through their doors and that is a remarkable record. Something to be very proud of.
One of the things that you might ask is, what is the Nigeran government doing to help their people? You see a lot of international groups here, but what about the Nigeran government? It is a very good question.
CNN's Jeff Koinange found out the government says they are handing out aid, but Jeff found out they're also charging for it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Twenty-two-year- old Haliba Musa (ph) has walked several miles to this food distribution center in the country south pleading for just one thing, a little milk powder to feed her three week old daughter Barahatzu (ph). She says she hasn't been able to produce any milk since her child was born and blames it on the ongoing famine that's killed thousands and threatens millions more.
We are suffering so much, she says. I've been feeding my daughter with goat's milk for three weeks and look at her now. She is sick. Little Barahatzu is already showing signs of severe malnutrition.
Niger officials who are distributing locally grown millet tell Haliba her infant can't qualify for any food aid until she's at least six months old. Those are the rules. And in a country where one in three people are illiterate, few dare to question rules. Still, Haliba pleads her case.
What are we supposed to do, she asks? Do they want my daughter to die? But that's exactly what happened to one of Hawa Abdu's (ph) two- month-old triplets. Six days after they were born, their mother says, there simply wasn't enough milk to go around. One died, leaving Hasana (ph) and Hussana (ph). They are now fighting for their lives against both a famine and bureaucracy.
All we're asking for is a little milk. Please give us some milk to feed our children, she pleads.
Because they both walked from another village, neither one qualifies for food aid here. This food aid, they are told, is only for those from this village who can pay the much reduced price.
Difficult to reach villages like this are the ones aid workers refer to as bearing the biggest brunt of the ongoing famine. Seven out of every 10 children that come to places like this seeking relief are said to be severely malnourished.
From what we've seen all over Niger, it's usually men who end up getting the food, although it's the women who do most of the work around here. Many hungry villagers simply stand and watch as the lucky few pay for their rations of millet, the country's staple crop. The same millet is being given away for free by various aid organizations around the country. But the closest point is about 50 miles away and few here have either the energy or the strength to walk that far in the scorching African sun.
Haliba's friends plead with the officials on her behalf. Her child is only three weeks old, they say, and she only has two other children. The mother of the twins, Howa (ph), has four other children. Such is the complex and complicated nature of food distribution in an equally complex and complicated country. In Niger, everything boils down to family and community.
The elders finally hear the pleas. Haliba can have her three scoops of millet, enough, she says, to last her entire family three days. There's no milk powder they say. Haliba says she's grateful she at least came away with something to take home to her starving family. With tiny Barahatzu strapped firmly in place, she loads her millet and starts her long trek back.
As for the mother of twins, Howa, she has to try her luck at the next village some 12 miles away. She says she'll need to rest a while before she can gather enough strength to walk. This famine, she tells us, is turning what was once a country of hard-working and energetic people into a nation of beggars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOINANGE: Now that mother of twins, Howa, was able to get a couple of grains of millet, so she at least walked away with enough food to last a day or so.
Anderson.
COOPER: It's so horrific when you see people who, you know, they say, look, I only have food for today, maybe tomorrow but not the next day. Nothing to feed the kids.
KOINANGE: These people are literally living hand to mouth. They just want something for today. If they get something for today, they're happy. Something that will last a day or so, that's even a reach. That's too far, too much to reach for.
COOPER: All right, Jeff, thanks very much. We're going to talk to you a little bit later in this special edition of 360.
We've been getting a lot of e-mails from viewers who want to help the situation here, help the children who are facing starvation here. There are many relief organizations who are doing incredible work here trying to save children and saving children every day, day and night. Right now we're in front of the intensive care ward at Doctors Without Borders. Nurses are on duty there. There are mothers with their sick children sleeping in these single beds, very slowly getting better.
If you want to find out how you can help, you can go to our Web site at CNN.com/360 and click on the "How to Help" link. You'll find out a whole list of organizations on that Web site.
Coming up on a special edition of 360, a lot more from Niger. The plague of locust. An extraordinary sight. An invasion of locust last year which are now resulting in so many problems here. We'll take a look at locust and how they can even blot out the sun and cause a shadow when they move in a swarm together.
We'll also take a look back at a little boy that we introduced you to last night. His name is Amino (ph). He was four years old. We met him in that intensive care ward here with Doctors Without Boarders. Tonight, another update on the story. We went to Amino's village, talked with his mother to see how his family is doing tonight.
Also, the plane crash in Toronto. Remarkable stories of survival. A jumbo jetliner crashing on landing. An international flight. No one was killed. Remarkable stories of survival.
360 continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson will have more from Niger coming up.
But first, some of the day's top stories.
We begin with a developing story. A full passenger jet and a fiery crash in Toronto, Canada. And amazingly, officials say, it appears all passengers have survived. With the very latest details we go to CNN's Deborah Feyerick.
Deb, this was amazing stuff.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Truly amazing stuff. There were 309 people on this plane. They were flying from Paris to Toronto. Officials say that everyone survived the crash. Only 14 people were hurt. Officials not saying exactly how bad the injuries.
Now witnesses tell CNN that within seconds of the crash, the chutes were deployed, passengers were climbing from the plane, people running like crazy, according to one witness, away from the plane. A witness saying they were screaming, afraid it would explode.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN MALE: Now what happens in a case like this, is that first on scene would be the RCMP -- the RCMP detachment that is at Toronto Airport, to secure the -- to secure the . . .
OLIVIER DUBOS, PASSENGER ON AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 358: ... and everybody was really panicked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Now, meteorologists say that the weather was very bad this afternoon at the time of landing. There was thunder, lightning, heavy wins. And according to witnesses, the plane touched down, then overshot the runway. It slammed into a raven. One witness describing it as like a roller coaster. The plane apparently cracked in half, then burst into flames.
According to a passenger, there was no warning anything was wrong. No announcement from the pilot or flight attendant. The only thing that seemed odd, according to one of the passengers, is that all the lights went off immediately before the plane landed.
Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, actually, I even heard that they had clapped when the plane first landed and then, of course, it continued on off the runway (ph).
FEYERICK: They had no idea anything was wrong. One witness said that they actually heard the engines revving back, as if it was trying to -- the pilot was trying to gain control of the plane so that it would not skid. And, obviously, that he wasn't able to.
COLLINS: We'll find out more after the investigation is done.
Deb Feyerick, thank you.
FEYERICK: Thanks.
COLLINS: There's a new forecast for this year's hurricane season. A record-setting seven named storms blew ashore in June and July. Now government experts predict there's much more to come.
CNN's Rick Sanchez looks at how this year's hurricane season may well go down in the history books.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's falling apart. Get back! Get back! Look at this. It's all coming apart.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Not since storms have been recorded has a hurricane this powerful pounded the coast of the United States so early in the season. Dennis barreled into the Florida panhandle as a category 3 storm July 10th, a rare sight that we were uniquely positioned to witness from a specially designed vehicle that allowed us to broadcast deep into the storm and be there as Dennis' winds did this.
(on carmera): Show them that flap. That flap over there. Oh, there it goes. There it goes!
SANCHEZ: As we watched the roof of the Econo Lodge Hotel flies off and ends up on top of a power line and it's barrel July.
LT. BRIG. GEN. DAVID JOHNSON, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: In the first two months of this season alone, we've had seven named storms, two of which became hurricanes, and those were both major hurricanes.
SANCHEZ: Brigadier General Johnson is the director of the U.S. Weather Service. The major hurricanes he's referring to are Dennis and Emily. But there also already been Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Franklin and Gert, all named storms and it's still not even the heart of the hurricane season.
JOHNSON: The peak activity for Atlantic hurricanes is usually August through October. SANCHEZ: What some coastal areas of the United States have already experience is a record-breaking hurricane season that is now expected to get even worse.
JOHNSON: NOAA expects an additional 11 to 14 tropical storms with seven to nine of those turning into hurricanes, and three to five of those major hurricanes.
SANCHEZ: That means by the time this season is done, we could have as many as 21 named storms, 11 of them hurricanes, as many as seven of them major hurricanes. That's more than twice the yearly average and a trend that may become the new norm. Why? Experts say it's because it just so happens that both ocean conditions and atmospheric conditions perfect for storm formation are coming together during the same time.
UNKNOWN MALE: It's very reasonable to expect above normal hurricane seasons and also very importantly a sustained, high level of hurricane landfalls for perhaps the next decade or even longer.
SANCHEZ: Not good news for coastal residents in places like Florida where they're still recovering not just from Dennis this year, but also from Charlie and Ivan from the year before.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Ahead on this special edition of 360, Anderson will reintroduce you to a brave little boy he told you about last night. Little Amino. It's a story you won't soon forget.
Also tonight, fellow Muslims answering the call for help. Moroccan military doctors on a mission to heal the pain.
Plus, an update on the Toronto plane crash. A jet skids off the runway and bursts into flames. The stories of survival.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: People live in very simple conditions here in Niger. Most houses are made of straw or a combination of mud and straw. This is actually a very sturdy structure. The doors are corrugated tin with a sheet. You put it like that. The whole family will live in this one room. The parents will sleep in the bed. Often the children will sleep right underneath the bed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We are live in Maradi, Niger, broadcasting from a facility set up with the relief group Doctors Without Borders. That's the intensive care ward of the hospital they have set up. It's a pretty quiet night, it seems. You don't hear too many children crying right now. That is a good sign -- children sleeping through the night. Certainly something they like to see here.
One of the things that has caused so much of the problems this time around in Niger -- it wasn't just the drought that affected the country last year, the drought was followed by, of all things, a plague of locusts, an invasion of locusts, that spread through the land.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: They came exactly a year ago and devoured 7,000 square miles of crops. It was the worst locust invasion Niger had seen in the last 15 years. Its effects devastating. The wave of destruction, swift. Locusts can travel up to 120 miles a day. The swarms at times were so thick it cast a shadow.
UNKNOWN MALE: They consume virtually anything in their path. Strip an area clean as if it had actually been burnt by a fire. This sort of a devastation is sudden and complete.
COOPER: Locusts begin life as grasshoppers, solitary creatures. But when the rains begin and the deserts bloom, they transform.
UNKNOWN MALE: It transforms its body, its size, its shape, even its coloration and behavior from what would be a typical grasshopper into this sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde version of a grasshopper, which we know as a locust.
COOPER: Their appetites veracious. They can eat their own weight in a single day. As a flying mass, they are a formidable force. They attack about once every 10 or 20 years. It's difficult to know exactly when they'll strike.
UNKNOWN MALE: Think in terms of a tornado. A fast-moving, locally destructive, hard to predict storm.
COOPER: As they have been for centuries, the people of Niger continue to be at the mercy of nature's unpredictable fury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: His "Reporter's Notebook", Harsh land, fording muddy rivers to a remote village, Anderson searched to understand the short life of a courageous little boy.
Before the hunger crisis, what did we know about Niger? A murky connection between Saddam, uranium, the CIA and a mystery leading to the White House. Tonight, Ambassador Joe Wilson with his personal account of the Niger scandal.
360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's hard for us to comprehend just how hard life is here for Nigerans. Even in the best of times, one out of four children dies before the age of four. And when you come to someone's home, you realize there are no photographs of family members. Having a photograph taken is a luxury in Niger. Most people can't afford it. So when a child dies, they simply vanish.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There are so many stories of children here fighting to stay alive, children who have beaten the odds and survived. Last night, we introduced you to a little boy that we had met several days ago. His name was Amino (ph). He was 4 years old. We met him right here, in the intensive care ward, Doctors Without Borders relief center set up in Maradi, Niger. And his mother was optimistic. Some of the doctors we talked to were optimistic that if he just made it for another day, he would be OK. Sadly, Amino (ph) did not make it for another day. He died just yesterday. And today, we visited his mother's home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): In the tiny village of Roca (ph), the women have seen a lifetime of death. Now, it's Zuwari Euhias' (ph) turn to mourn. Yesterday, her 4-year-old son, Amino (ph), died. Today, she has to go on.
(on camera): How will you remember Amino (ph)?
"He was a kind child," she says. "Gentle, a good boy."
We first met Zuwari (ph) and Amino (ph) a few days ago, in the intensive care ward of a makeshift hospital, set up by the relief group Doctors Without Borders. Amino (ph) was severely malnourished; his body badly infected. Even so, his death came as a shock.
When we first saw him, Amino (ph) was covered with a blanket. Dr. Milton Techtonadish (ph) seemed optimistic he'd make it.
There were other children in the ward who seemed in worse shape. Rashidu (ph) needed fluids. Habu (ph) was clinging to life. If a child can drink milk in this ward, that's a very good sign. And Amino (ph) could drink milk faster than most.
The next morning, when we returned, we were happy to see all three children had made it through the night. But happiness doesn't last long when children are starving.
(on camera): It's shocking how quickly things can change here, how in the blink of an eye, a child can simply vanish. When we came in this morning, the three kids we met yesterday were doing OK. At least they'd made it through the night. They were still alive. And now, it's the evening, several hours later. And things have changed.
Amino (ph) is OK. His mom is pretty confident. But Rashidu (ph) is in septic shock. And Habu (ph), Habu (ph) died several hours ago. He was just 10 months old.
(voice-over): The next day, Amino's (ph) little body gave up as well. He died in the morning. He was just 4 years old.
The day after he died, we went to Amino's (ph) village.
(on camera): Mothers with children who are starving often have to travel great distances just to get their kids the help they need. The village where Amino (ph) lived is very remote. To find it, we had to drive an hour outside Maradi. But even then, you can't make it by car. You have to cross this river on foot and walk the last quarter mile.
(voice-over): When we arrived, Amino's (ph) father was heading to the fields.
(on camera): I'm very sorry for your loss.
(voice-over): Even in death, there's work to be done.
Zuwari (ph) was surprised Amino (ph) didn't make it, but she's very thankful for the doctors who tried to save him.
The doctors did their best for Amino (ph), she says. They all did their best.
(on camera): Zuwari (ph) was saying that her youngest child, Sanni (ph), who is just 2 years old, doesn't really understand what's happened to his older brother. This morning, she says he woke up and called out for Amino (ph).
(voice-over): Zuwari (ph) says she worries now about how little food she has for Sanni (ph) and her 10-year-old daughter, Rashida (ph).
Nearby, Amino's (ph) great grandmother prepares a meal of leaves.
(on camera): When there's a shortage of food, adults here in Niger can survive by picking leaves off trees or eating grasses that they find out in the bush. This is Amino's (ph) great grandmother, who has picked some leaves from some nearby trees. She's going to boil those up, and that's what she's going to eat today.
But the problem is, for children like Amino (ph), these leaves don't provide enough nutrition. And that's why they get severely malnourished.
What happened to Amino (ph) is horrible, but it's not all that surprising here in Niger. Amino's (ph) great grandmother has had 38 grandchildren; of them, half have died, and 13 of her great grandchildren have died as well.
(voice-over): Doctors have given Zuwari (ph) some food that should last a few days. The harvest comes next month. It seems an awfully long time to wait.
Amino (ph) was buried in an unmarked grave back in Maradi. He has no headstone, no marker, so it's impossible to know which mound is his. There are 12 tiny graves here, each one freshly dug, 12 tiny lives come to an end. At the hospital where Amino (ph) died, his bed has already been filled. Another child, another mother, another struggle to live.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we have some good news to report tonight. Rashidu (ph), the little boy, the 2-year-old boy that you met in that piece, he is still alive. Of the three children we had profiled earlier, he's the only one still living. He's in that intensive care ward right now at this moment, sleeping through the night. And we certainly wish him well. Our thoughts and our prayers are with him and all the children who are here right now.
The doctors here, at Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders, could certainly use the help of donations and support that a lot of people around the world would like to give. If you would like to donate some money to Doctors Without Borders or any of the relief organizations who are working very hard here in Maradi, Niger, to try to solve this crisis, to try to help the people here, especially the children, you can log onto our Web site, CNN.com/360. Click on the "How to Help" link. There is information about Doctors Without Borders and many of the other relief groups who are working here.
We have a lot more from Niger coming up ahead, including my "Reporter's Notebook", a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like being here as a reporter, and as an aid worker, some of the behind- the- scenes looks that we've seen over the last several days.
Also, we'll hear again from Jeff Koinange about some other doctors who are working here, Moroccan doctors who are working to save lives of many children.
And our Kelly Wallace had an interview with Joe Wilson, the former ambassador. You may, of course, know he was involved in looking for information on uranium here in Niger. We'll have an exclusive interview, Kelly Wallace, with him, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): Life for women in Niger is extraordinarily difficult. These women are pounding millet to make a meal. The women do virtually all of the work here. They care for the children. They prepare the food, which is no simple task, and they work in the fields.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It is extraordinary how difficult life is here in Niger for people, especially for the women, and especially now, right now for very young children. The pictures of children suffering have had a big impact around the world. The king of Morocco saw some of the pictures and decided to send a large contingent of military doctors here to help.
CNN's Jeff Koinange spent some time with them earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They come here in the thousands every day to an abandoned stadium on the outskirts of Maradi. They are the sick, the miserable and the downtrodden, in search of miracles. Seventy-year-old Aminata (ph) says she spent three straight nights out here, hoping to be among the lucky few to be admitted inside these walls. Her entire body aches, and she has a high fever.
Others, like Hawa Mohammed (ph), are too sick and exhausted to move. Their rescuers reach them one by one. They are not Western aid workers, but soldiers from a fellow Muslim country -- medics from the Royal Moroccan Army. They've set up this mobile hospital unit made up of tents, complete with examination rooms, surgical wards, a pediatric unit, X-ray and radiology departments, everything a hospital would need.
There are about 70 Moroccan soldiers here led by a colonel and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ahmed Moudene. He's a 30-year veteran of peace-keeping missions and a man who knows a thing or two about misery.
We've treated more than 11,000 patients so far in the last four weeks, he says. They arrive here in a very bad condition and our job is to try and make them better.
The team of 22 surgeons and doctors landed here nearly a month ago, courtesy of the Moroccan government. They've been going nonstop, even when the king of Moroccoo paid a visit.
DR. AJANA ABDELRRAHMAN, ROYAL MOROCCAN ARMY (translator): It's like a normal hospital, only it's under a big tent and can easily be assembled and dismantled, he says.
KOINANGE: On an average day, he says, the medical team treats more than 500 patients. Diseases range from malaria, the biggest child killer in Africa today, to pneumonia.
The biggest problems are diet related -- bad food, bad water, lead to infected stomachs, he says.
Twelve-year-old Hassan Abdullah (ph) has a swollen stomach caused by an infection. The surgeons here say he arrived here just in time.
He has parasites in his stomach. He's been suffering for quite a while, but now that he's here, we'll try and make him better, he says.
Moudene and his squad of doctors and nurses go through each case, they say, as through they were back home. The Moroccan team also carries out several surgical operations a day. No small challenge in this environment. Many of the ailments are treatable with simple medications, medications simply not available in Niger, but plentiful in the Moroccans' pharmacy.
Even so, these mercy workers know their efforts can't cope with the overwhelming demand.
DR. AHMED MOUDENE, ROYAL MOROCCAN ARMY (via translator): We're going to need more help. Perhaps more will come to the aid of this poor nation, he says.
Suleman Abdee (ph) has already defied the odds here by reaching the age of 77. Now, he has any new lease of life after receiving medication to cure an ailing leg. It's a small gesture of appreciation, in a land where misery loves company, but where a small group of soldiers are keeping people alive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOINANGE: Now Dr. Ahmed Moudene and his group tell me they will stay in Niger for as long as it takes. No doubt, they rank among the highest of the new heroes coming outside of this tragedy -- Anderson?
COOPER: Jeff, the U.N. had said they needed some $30 million to help out the crisis here. Have they got it?
KOINANGE: They haven't got it and the problem is, countries pledge this money. Pledging is one thing, actually following up and getting this money over, is a totally different thing.
COOPER: All right.
KOINANGE: So, they're getting only a fraction so far.
COOPER: All right. Jeff Koinange, thanks for that.
We also have a lot more coming up from Niger including my reporter's notebook: A behind-the-scenes look at what it is really like to be here and to report on this story.
Now also, an exclusive interview. Kelly Wallace speaking with former Ambassador Joe Wilson, about Niger and uranium and Karl Rove.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Anderson will have more from Niger coming up. But first, more on a developing story. An Air France flight with 309 onboard, crash-lands in Toronto, Canada. With the very latest details, we go to CNN's Deborah Feyerick.
FEYERICK: Well, Heidi, the airport was on red alert ground stop for much of the afternoon. Lightning, thunder and heavy winds keeping planes from flying in and out of Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Now, a passenger on the Air France plane out of Paris, says there wasn't any particularly heavy turbulence, though another passenger says, he did see lightning. Now, officials say all 309 people miraculously survived the crash, some 14 were hurt. One report saying however, the injuries, not serious. According to witnesses, the plane touched down, overshot the runway, then slammed into a ravine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROEL BRAMAR, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT 358: We had come to a complete stop, so it's not like you think anything else is about to happen. I mean, even though we had a hell of a roller coaster going down the ravine. But as soon as there was some smoke and fire outside -- and I can't tell how the other people reacted, because I was at the very, very end of the plane, the absolute last seat of the plane. And so, you know, all I could think of was get off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Witnesses tell CNN that the plane apparently cracked in half, then burst into flames. And within seconds of the crash, chutes were deployed, passengers were seen climbing from that plane, people running - quote -- "like crazy" -- unquote -- away from the wreckage. They were screaming, afraid the plane might explode. According to a passenger, the only thing that seemed odd on the landing is that all the lights went off.
Now, the NTSB is on its way. They plan to find out what went wrong -- Heidi?
COLLINS: The real story here, the flight attendants and their work, I bet. Terrific job. All right Deb, thanks.
Before the drought and famine, it's a good bet the only thing Americans knew about the African nation of Niger was its part in a scandal involving the White House, the CIA and Saddam Hussein. That controversy involved faulty intelligence about uranium, which ultimately led to the leaking of an undercover agent's name.
A special prosecutor is still investigating whether any White House officials broke the law by leaking the CIA agent's name.
CNN national correspondent Kelly Wallace sat down with the man who is at the center of the controversy, the man who first went to Niger to investigate whether Iraq had purchased uranium for possible use in an Iraqi nuclear program, Ambassador Joe Wilson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was an intelligence report about Niger in February 2002, which started it all. The allegation that the small African nation sold 500 tons of uranium yellowcake to Iraq.
JOE WILSON, FORMER US AMBASSADOR: There would be only one reason for Saddam Hussein to be purchasing uranium yellowcake from Niger and that would be to resuscitate his nuclear weapons program. It was important to check it out.
WALLACE: Enter Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador and career diplomat who spent years in Niger. He was summoned to the CIA for a meeting about the Niger-Iraq deal, which the vice president's office tasked the CIA to investigate.
(on camera): Whose idea was it to have you come to the CIA and talk about your expertise?
WILSON: It was the head of the counter-proliferation division, I believe, or somebody in that shop. It was not my wife, although there's been a lot of talk about that. She has served really only as a conduit to invite me out there.
WALLACE: Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, works as an operative at the CIA. In a report last summer, the Senate Intelligence Committee said that she suggested he travel to Niger. Wilson says that's incorrect.
WILSON: Clearly, it was a decision the CIA made. And they made it because, again, I had spent a lot of time with the most senior officials in Niger over the previous decade, and developed a considerable amount of credibility with them.
WALLACE: Wilson, who had once been ambassador to Gabon, Africa, says he spent eight days in Niger, talking with dozens of people, current and former government officials and people involved in the country's uranium business. Uranium, the largest expert beyond cattle for this impoverished nation.
Wilson says it only took him a short time to conclude that the Niger-Iraq deal did not take place. Why? Because of the way Niger's uranium industry is structured.
WILSON: The fact remains, if you kind of look at this from a number of different angles, you can't get out from under the fact that the French mining company is the organization that is the only organization that has its hands on the product. And you could not do anything without the French mining company having to ramp up production to accommodate the additional 500 tons that the Niger government might have -- was alleged to have wanted to sell to Iraq.
WALLACE: Then came the president's State of the Union address in 2003.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
WALLACE: But months later, the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that Niger-Iraq documents were forgeries. Wilson says he appealed to Bush administration officials to admit they had bad information. When they didn't, he decided to go public, writing an opinion piece in the "New York Times."
WILSON: It's really a very simple story. A legitimate question was raised. A citizen with particular expertise went out and attempted to answer the question, as did others. The answers were ignored.
WALLACE: The White House says, that's not true. And now, the story has moved away from the small African nation to the nation's capital, with a journalist in jail, a federal probe, and doubts cast on the reasons to go to the war in Iraq.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Let's find out now what's coming up at the top of the hour on PAULA ZAHN NOW. Hi, Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Hi, Heidi. At the top of the hour, continuing coverage of the miracle in Toronto earlier today when an Air Force (sic) jetliner skidded off a runway and burned. But miraculously, everyone, all 390 -- excuse me, 309 people aboard got out alive. We will have survivor stories and hear from eyewitnesses to the crash.
We will also continue our special series, "Safe at Home." Is it time for U.S. citizens to start carrying national ID cards? In an exclusive interview, former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge tells us why he thinks so.
But Heidi, the most important thing, I think, in our next hour for everybody to learn is we all need to pay attention to the flight attendants when they give us instructions. That is why most of those 309 people are alive tonight.
COLLINS: No question about it.
ZAHN: (INAUDIBLE) all got out.
COLLINS: All right. Paula, thank you.
Next on 360, back to Niger, and Anderson's "Reporter's Notebook". His reflections on the past few days as a witness to those who are starving in plain sight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: This family is cooking up beans for their daily meal. There's really not much variety to the food here. There's not that many options. It's the same thing day after day. Even when there's not a drought, and where has not been a crop failure, families eat maybe two meals a day. But right now, with the food shortage, they're lucky if they get one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Over the last several days, we've been traveling with a photographer, Rhadika Chelsani (ph), who has been taking photographs of us doing our work and of the people we've been meeting. We wanted to bring you some of her images tonight, with some personal reflections from me, about what it is like being here in Niger in these terrible, terrible times.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER (voice-over): What's it like over there? What's it like? That's the question I always get. But, really, I never know how to answer it.
It's like this. And like this. It's also like this.
It's terrible, it's tragic, it's wonderful, it's alive. Even in death, Africa pulses with life. There's no layer of fat to cushion the pain, the joy. Back home, it's just not the same. You cross rivers, you get stuck. Nothing is easy. With money, of course, you can always get by. We sleep in a dingy hotel in Maradi, eating tuna and candy, working around the clock. No one complains, however. The work just feels right, and we all have it so easy.
The poverty, well, it's crushing, but people are resilient. I know it's a cliche, but this is a continent of heroes, of people who make do with nothing.
You get surrounded by kids. Half the population of Niger is under the age of 15. They're poor, they have nothing, but they are so quick to laugh.
Kids are supposed to go to school here, but you see a lot of them working the fields or selling stuff. Their families need the extra hands.
It's impossible to get used to seeing this kind of thing, this poverty, this malnutrition. I've seen it up close, but the truth is, I still can't imagine what it's like. Laying on a plastic mat, no sheets, no privacy, medicine only for the lucky. What can you do watching your child die in your arms?
Did you know when a child dies at night in this intensive care, they let his mother sleep by his side. I can't get that image out of my mind. Does she speak to her baby in the pitch black of night? The moment she wakes, does she think he's still alive?
When you've reported a lot of stories like this, there's a tendency to compare. Somalia was worse, they say. So is the Sudan. But there shouldn't be a sliding scale of sorrow. Children are dying. How many little lives lost is an acceptable toll?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And one of the many things you hear from relief workers here over and over is that it didn't have to happen, it didn't have to be this way.
KOINANGE: Absolutely. And the images are so sad and so heartbreaking. And they were waving that red flag eight months ago. The world turned its back on Niger. That's why you see those images, so sad.
COOPER: There was also so much focus on the tsunami back then, that, I don't know, maybe there was compassion fatigue. Maybe people can't handle that many crises all at once. KOINANGE: Indeed. And you know, November was a long time ago, and they thought maybe the tsunami aftereffects wouldn't take so long. But January came, and then June came. And then this came. And now look at this crisis we're in.
COOPER: All right, Jeff. Remarkable reporting over the week. Thanks very much for all your help.
KOINANGE: Thank you.
COOPER: Appreciate it.
Again, we've been getting a lot of e-mails about people wanting to know how they can help if they do want to help. You can check out our Web site, CNN.com/360. You can click on the link "How to Help." We have information about a whole number of relief agencies who are doing work here in Niger -- extraordinary work, day in and day out. They're not looking for thanks, they're not looking for handouts, but they are -- can certainly use some help.
We also want to thank Doctors Without Borders, the organization that we have been broadcasting from tonight and also last night. Again, this is their intensive care ward behind me. Some of the children we have met, we've really focused on three children over the last several nights. Two of them have died. One of them has lived. But the doctors here usually save nine out of 10 of the children that they treat.
Right now, let's continue our prime-time coverage with CNN's Paula Zahn, who is in New York -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Anderson.
END
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