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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Special Edition: Starving in Plain Sight

Aired August 05, 2005 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: We begin tonight in Houston. Quite an eventful afternoon there this afternoon. This Southwest flight was actually diverted from Dallas, originally headed for Corpus Christi. Instead, the flight was forced to land this afternoon in Houston. This all caused initially by a note which was reportedly -- which was reportedly on board. The entire flight was evacuated, along with the crew of five. The plane and bags searched. Again, that was Southwest flight number 21 from Dallas to Corpus Christi, diverted this afternoon to Houston. But we are happy to report that everyone landed safely.
In Cleveland, Ohio a tribute today to some of the 28 American troops who were killed there -- killed this week in Iraq. More than a dozen of the fallen Marines were stationed in a unit based in a Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. More memorials will be held in the coming days.

And on now to Baghdad, Iraq, where U.S. soldiers combed roadsides for so-called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the bombs that have killed so many Marines this week. At the same time, the military has launched another push against insurgents in the same region where attacks against U.S. soldiers are on the rise.

And off the Russian Pacific Coast, an international effort is now under way to rescue a Russian crew trapped in a mini-submarine 625 feet underwater. The Russian ship is trying to tow it into shallower waters. The sub was stuck in fishing nets or a cable yesterday. Still not clear at this hour how much oxygen is left to keep the crew alive.

I'm Erica Hill in Atlanta. We turn you now to Anderson Cooper, a special edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360:" "Starving in Plain Sight."

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper in Maradi, Niger. "Starving in Plain Sight, the Food Crisis in Niger." A special edition of 360 starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: "Starving in Plain Sight." Anderson Cooper on an extraordinary journey into the heart of Africa. And the hunger crisis with more 3 million on the brink. Locusts, famine, drought and disease. At last, aid on the way. After months and months of cries for help. But who heard them? And is there time to stop the apocalypse now? Ground zero. It doesn't look like you imagined. There is a drought, but there's water; starvation, but there's food. Anderson is up close, and what he sees is very personal.

Harsh land. Fording muddy rivers to a remote village. Anderson's search to understand the short life of a courageous little boy.

Then, lending a helping hand. How you can reach out to the hungry and help heal the pain.

From Maradi, Niger, this is a special edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360," "Starving in Plain Sight."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Good evening. Welcome to this special edition of 360, "Starving in Plain Sight, the Food Crisis in Niger.

That's exactly what is happening here, a crisis. A food shortage the likes of which this country has rarely seen.

We're in a relief center set up by the group Doctors Without Borders. They are treating thousands of children at risk for starvation. Aid agencies say that 3.5 million Nigeriens are right now at risk for starvation, some 800,000 of them children. We're seeing children dying here every day from starvation.

Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa, a dry, desert place, a place where life is hard even in the best of times, and these certainly are not the best of times. Children are starving to death.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice over): This is what desperation looks like. In a small village in southern Niger, hundreds of mothers gather with their hungry children, hoping somebody will help them.

(on camera): Hunger is nothing new in Niger. Every year there's a several-month gap -- they call it the hungry season -- between when the crops have been planted and they're actually harvested. What happened is with the drought last year, the crops simply didn't come up this year, so that hungry season is longer and more intense than it's been.

(voice-over): That's why Niger is in crisis. Aid agencies say the severe food shortage has put some 3.6 million Nigeriens at risk of starvation, most of them children.

(on camera): Some of the worst cases aren't necessarily in the big cities in Niger, they're in smaller, outlying villages. The relief groups come to villages like this one and offer screening. Mothers bring their children. The worst cases are brought back to the city, back to the hospital.

(voice-over): At this village screening, however, the crowds are simply too big.

(on camera): It's a bit overwhelming when you first come to a center like this because there are just so many people, so many mothers who have brought their children. Not all of them are starving. Not all of them are severely malnourished. In fact, some of them look pretty healthy. They're smiling. But they know that there's food here. They know there's medical care here. So they bring their children looking for help.

(voice-over): Christophe (ph), a relief worker with Doctors Without Borders, decides it's impossible to safely screen children in these conditions.

(on camera): What's the problem today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today the problem is there are too much people and uncontrolled.

COOPER (on camera): The village elders are trying to restore some semblance of order but they're not having much luck. There are just too many people, too many people trying to get food for their kids. The relief workers are actually going to cancel the program in this village for today because it's impossible to screen out the most needy. They hope they're going to be able to come back tomorrow.

(voice-over): A few miles away, Doctors Without Borders is able to screen other children. They're weighed and measured. Some immediately receive milk.

The worst cases wind up here in the hospital. It's not known how many children have died in Niger because of this year's severe food shortage, but relief agencies say there have been thousands. Their deaths don't make headlines, only their parents remember their names.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Another Nigerien mother waiting with her hungry child for help. This relief center has been set up by the group Doctors Without Boarders. It's in Maradi, the third largest city in Niger, but as CNN's Jeff Koinange found out, many of the worst off cases are far out in the countryside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the road in the countryside in one of the world's poorest nations. This is rural Niger, a land littered with contradictions, where both crops and cattle abound, while a nation faces one of its worst famines in recent memory. Village after village looks empty and abandoned. Many have opted for the big cities where aid agencies distribute food.

Those too weak to walk scratch the ground for scraps. Around here, a handful of grain can often go a long way. Further a-field, communities live in abject poverty, where the strong have to fend for the weak, the young fending for the old. Seventy-five-year-old Abdullah Omar (ph) is so weak from hunger he can hardly walk. His 10-year-old daughter Amena (ph) has to pound the family's few remaining grains in fear that her father will starve to death.

"I can't remember the last time we ate. We are so hungry," he says.

Much of their livestock has been decimated by a famine that's killed thousands and threatens millions more.

(on camera): Now what's deceiving about this scene here is that it all looks so green and fertile. But just scratch a bit of this surface here and you'll find that these soils are bone dry.

Now, speaking of bones, scenes that are repeated across this land, the bones of dead horses, donkeys and cows, an indicator the famine has been going on for quite a while with little or no relief in sight.

(voice-over): Ousmane Abubakar is a nomadic herdsman who grazes his fast thinning herds near the carcasses of his 20 dead cows. He says cattle are his life, providing much needed food for his two wives and nine children.

"What else can I do? I've been herding cattle for many years. I can't do anything else," he says.

The aid agency OXFAM may have found a solution to the dying herds. It's buying cattle from local herdsmen at a premium and converting the herds into meat and then giving it back to the community under a work for food program, a program that's getting food where it's needed most.

LOUIS BELANGER, OXFAM SPOKESMAN: So it's basically, you know, bringing relief to some of the nomadic communities, which are very much affected because of the famine, because they've lost most of their herds.

KOINANGE: This enables hundreds of starving villagers like Parti Balari to get the minimum $5 food vouchers from feeding centers like this one, under a tree in the middle of nowhere. She happily receives her rice from Pakistan, sugar from Brazil, cooking oil and tea from China.

"I am so happy," she says. "Without this, we would surely die." Enough food to feed her five children for only a few days as they await long overdue rains.

BELANGER: The worst case scenario for Niger today is if there's no rain in the next two or three weeks, you're looking at a third year in a row with a very bad harvest and this would just bring disaster to the country.

KOINANGE: A disaster many here are hoping they can still avert in a land as unforgiving as it is unrelenting. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE: And the misery for the people of Niger is set to continue if long awaited rains don't fall in the next three for four weeks -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jeff, thanks. So many people from the countryside travel great distances just to get to a relief center like this one set up by Doctors Without Borders. Niger is a place where even in the best of times, life is very, very hard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice over): These are the faces of Niger. Hollow eyes. Hunger. More than 11 million people, some of them desert nomads, inhabit this fragile country. Eighty percent of them are Muslim. Christians make up just a small percentage of the population here.

Originally, a French colony until 1960, French is still the primary language spoken here. It wasn't until 1993 that Niger held its first free and open elections.

Niger is in the northwest of Africa. It's about two times the size of Texas. Its capital is Niamey. It's known as the sub-Saharan region. Goats, oxen and camel prowl this difficult terrain. Persistent drought, even plagues of locust, are very much a part of its recent history. Man and animal compete for precious resources. Academics say Niger's land-locked position and unforgiving desert terrain are key ingredients in keeping it on the brink of ruin.

LORENZO MORRIS, ASSOC PROF. HOWARD UNIV.: Its lack of ocean access is symbolic of its lack of access to world trade in the economy. It has very limited resources and poor trade relations.

COOPER: Just how poor is one of the poorest countries on Earth? Many here subsist on less than $1 a day. Unlike other countries in Africa, however, Niger's problems are not caused by war.

So how can one failed crop push a country into crisis? People look to Niger's president, Tanja Mamadou.

MORRIS: When you have only one election to count as a clearly democratic election, then you have a limited claim to stable democracy. Ethnic divisions are difficult to manage as well.

COOPER: Part of this country's instability is traced ironically to one of its major industries, uranium mining. Most of us, if we've heard of Niger at all, know about it in the context of the CIA and Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame and yellowcake uranium. Uranium was discovered here in the late 1970s and Niger's uranium boom is blamed on creating not only huge disparities of wealth here, but military unrest.

MORRIS: The wealth of uranium has been a source of instability in the sense that as potential income for the economy grows, the separatist interests of some of the minority group are stronger. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: If would you like to learn more about what's happening here in Niger and some of the relief groups who are trying to help, you can log onto our Web site, cnn.com/360. Click on "how to help" link.

Coming up next on this special edition of 360, "Starving in Plain Sight," a little boy who captured all of our hearts, a little boy named Aminu (ph), who was fighting for his life.

Also ahead tonight, distributing aid. A lot of international groups are here, but what is the Nigerien government doing, if anything, about the crisis? CNN's Jeff Koinange found out, they are distributing some aid, but they are also making people pay for it.

Also ahead tonight, the long journey through Niger. Behind the scenes. What it's like reporting here, what it's like just to get to Maradi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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. The whole family will live in this one room. Parents will sleep in the bed. Often, the children will sleep right underneath the bed.

A look inside a typical house here in Niger.

You know, there are so many international aid groups trying to save lives here in Niger, you might ask yourself, well, what is the Nigerien government doing to save their own people? It's a very good question. CNN's Jeff Koinange found out that they are distributing just a little bit of aid, the Nigerien government is, but they are also making people pay for it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice over): Twenty-two-year-old Halima Moussa 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 Halima 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, Halima 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 Hauwa Abdou's 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.

(on camera): 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.

(voice-over): 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.

Halima'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, Hauwa, 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. Halima can have her three scoops of millet, enough, she says, to last her entire family three days. There's no milk powder they say. Halima 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, Hauwa, 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.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, in the village of Yanduba (ph) in southern Niger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next on this special edition of 360, "Starving in Plain Sight," the nomads of Niger. They live off their cattle, but because of last year's drought, the cattle are dying. Also ahead, a little boy that captured of our hearts, Aminu (ph), 4 years old, fighting for his life. And my reporter's notebook, a behind-the-scenes look at what it is like being in Niger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: It's hard to describe what it's like being in Niger at this terrible, terrible time. Just to get to Maradi, you have to drive about eight hours from the capital, Niamey.

I took a video camera with me along on the journey, and I filed this reporter's notebook, to give you a sense of what it's like behind the scenes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Dawn was just breaking when we left Niger's capital, Niamey. We were heading for a town called Maradi, where aid groups have set up feeding centers to care for the more than 3.5 million Nigerians they say are at risk of starvation.

(on camera): Maradi is an eight-hour drive east out of Niger's capital. We had wanted to make the drive last night, but were warned the road wasn't safe because of roadblocks and bandits.

(voice-over): Niger is one of Africa's poorest countries, and considering the continent, that's saying a lot. Mile after mile, you see nothing but mud huts and straw structures. Little changed in centuries.

I sort of expected to see convoys of trucks with food aid clogging the highway, but there weren't any. In fact, there were few cars on the road at all. I counted far more donkeys and cattle.

There isn't much in Niger to attract tourists. So any time you stop, you become the main attraction.

Getting gas, the people are friendly, but poverty all around.

(on camera): Life in Niger, even in the best of times, is pretty harsh. This is a town about halfway between the capital and Maradi, where we have stopped for gas. And there is food here. There's a child selling some biscuits. But even here, kids are hungry. They come up to you begging for food.

(voice-over): In Niger, hunger is never far away. Some of these kids may be malnourished, most are no doubt hungry, but they can smile and laugh. Kids who are starving can't do that.

When you expect to see famine, it's strange to see crops. Millet and sorghum grow on the side of the road. Most of the country isn't this green, however. In fact, it's mostly desert.

On the horizon, we spot a rainstorm. A year ago, there was a drought. That, plus an invasion of locusts, destroyed a third of last year's crops. As you can see, there isn't really a drought now in Niger. In fact, it's the rainy season. A couple of times a week, rain seems to come out of nowhere, and leaves just as quickly. Doesn't really help those who are already severely malnourished, but certainly good for the crops that have already been planted.

When we finally get to Maradi, there's not much sign of a big relief effort. In fact, there's not much sign of anything going on at all.

To see the crisis, you really have to go to the relief centers. They are filled every day with women and their children, who come because there's really nowhere else for them to go.

(on camera): I suppose the story is really nothing new. Hunger has happened for centuries, starvation, children die every day. We've all seen the pictures of children with bloated bellies from malnutrition, infants with unfocused eyes. But, still, when you are here and you see the children up close -- you know what you're going to see, but nothing prepares you for it. You never get used to seeing a child die.

(voice-over): The crisis in Niger, it's not like any other I've covered. It's not instantly apparent. It's not all around you. You have to look close, you have to travel far. You have to understand that not all suffering is ready-made for TV.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: "Starving in Plain Sight." Anderson Cooper on an extraordinary journey into the heart of Africa. And a hunger crisis with more than 3 million on the brink. Locusts, famine, drought and disease.

And lending a helping hand. How you can reach out to the hungry and help heal the pain.

360 continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: ANDERSON COOPER 360, "Starving in Plain Sight," continues in a moment, but first, a look at the headlines for you.

Foreigners welcome, just as long as they play by the rules -- that is the word from the British prime minister in London today. Tony Blair warned that from now on, any foreign national preaching hatred or inciting errorism in Britain -- terrorism, rather, could be deported. The new policy follows last month's terror attacks on London's transit system.

In northern Israel, thousands turned out today for the funerals of four Israeli Arabs killed in a shooting rampage yesterday. Police say an Israeli soldier boarded a bus and killed the driver and three passengers. The gunman was reportedly beaten to death by an angry crowd. Israeli media says he was outraged about Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Israel's transport minister today ordered four cruise ships not to dock at a Turkish port, after warnings of a possible terrorist attack. Those ships were carrying about 3,500 Israeli tourists.

And that's going to do it for us at HEADLINE NEWS. We turn you back now to Anderson and the special on the crisis in Niger, "Starvation in Plain Sight."

COOPER: It is hard for us to comprehend just how hard life is here for Nigeriens, even in the best of times. One out of four children dies before the age of 4. 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.

We're in this relief center set up by the group Doctors Without Borders. This is where we first came when we got to Maradi to see really the heart of the problem.

There are about 200 children being treated here right now. About 300 children are being treated on an outpatient basis, as well. When we first came here, we went to the intensive care ward, and what we saw there shocked us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): On a plastic covered mattress, in a makeshift hospital ward, a 10-month-old child fights to stay alive. His name is Habu Rabyu (ph). His tiny body riddled with infections from months of severe malnutrition.

(on camera): So he came in on the 19th of July?

DR. MILTON TECTONIDIS, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Yes.

COOPER: And by the 30th...

TECTONIDIS: And did well until about the 23rd, and then he crashed.

COOPER: So he's actually worse?

TECTONIDIS: And now he came up a bit and, yes, he's worse than when he came in.

COOPER: Worse than when he came in.

(voice-over): Dr. Milton Tectonidis works for the relief group Doctors Without Boarders. Since January in Niger, they've treated more than 14,000 children at risk of starvation. They know there are many more too sick to make it to the hospital.

(on camera): Mothers bring their children here from out of the bush. And there's one child here who is probably going to be admitted to the hospital.

What do you look for?

TECTONIDIS: Well, usually in a kid, you look for sunken eyes and skin that doesn't come back, decreased skin turgor. Skin that -- see like that, doesn't go right back. It stays folded.

COOPER: This child's name is Rashidu Mamal (ph). He's 2 years old, and his pain is beyond tears.

TECTONIDIS: This is a maraznic wash (ph). Actually, it's the worst case possible.

COOPER: So there's fluid in . . .

TECTONIDIS: There's fluid. You can feel it. If you feel it, can you feel, he's got water in his tissues. I think we'll get him. And they will give him fluid. They will give him sugar right away to make sure that he's not hypoglycemic and then antibiotics and milk. And if he makes it through the first day or two, he'll be -- he'll -- and you'll see him running around in another week.

COOPER: Really?

TECTONIDIS: Yes, yes, yes. It's miraculous.

COOPER: A few beds away, covered with a blanket, we find Aminu Yahaya (ph), watched over by his mom.

TECTONIDIS: How are you? How are you doing? Huh? How are you doing? Oh, move your hand a bit. OK. OK. Shh.

So, he came in with edema everywhere.

COOPER (on camera): Edema is -- is what?

TECTONIDIS: Water in the tissues. So, water everywhere. Water in the tissues. Water around his eyes. And their skin desquamates. Desquamates the skin.

COOPER: Desquamates means...

TECTONIDIS: Comes off. It comes off because of a zinc deficiency.

COOPER: So his skin is literally just peeling off?

TECTONIDIS: Yes. Here it's gotten -- it's back down to normal again. It's gotten better, but there are some places it hasn't completely finished and he's, unfortunately, developed some lesions of pressure sores from being sick so long. But he's getting better fast. I'm sure we're going to save him, if he makes it through another day or two.

COOPER: That's a question, whether he would make it through a day or two? TECTONIDIS: Yes. For sure. He can get -- in an hour, he can die if he gets too much bacteria in his blood. What a life, huh? What a life.

COOPER (voice-over): If a child in this intensive care unit is able to drink milk formula, there's a good chance they'll live.

(on camera): He's drinking.

TECTONIDIS: He's going to drink the whole thing. Bravo. Bravo, bambini. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. All finished. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo.

COOPER (voice-over): Rashidu (ph) is trying to drink milk as well, but he can't take as much.

TECTONIDIS: Slowly, slowly. He's hungry. You have to go slowly, slowly. But he wants it, which is a very good sign.

COOPER: Habu (ph), however, can't drink at all. Doctors don't think he'll live through the night.

The next morning when we return, the arrivals tent is once again filled; children getting weighed and measured. Some immediately receive milk.

Inside intensive care, Aminu (ph) is still asleep. Rashidu (ph) is awake, and Habu (ph) is alive. His breathing, shallow and quick, but the nurses say he's stable. This is the last time we'll see him. When we return later in the day, Habu's (ph) bed is empty.

(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 made it through the night. They were still alive. Well, now it's the evening, several hours later and things have changed. Aminu (ph) is OK and his mom is pretty confident, but Rashidu (ph) is in septic shock and Habu (ph) -- well, Habu (ph) died several hours ago. He was just 10 months old.

(voice-over): On the bed, Habu's (ph) cup and bowl are all that remain. His mother lives more than 100 miles away and is already returning home. She left Habu (ph) behind, buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the outskirts of town.

(on camera): Do you get used to seeing this?

TECTONIDIS: Yes, there's two or three a day. So, we know which ones are going to go. There's some surprises. Those are a bit harder. You have to keep going. You can't stop for a -- one death. The mothers understand. They don't expect you to show sympathy. They expect you to try your best. If you cry in front of the mothers, what good is that? They just start worrying about their own kid. So, if you start doing that in front of the mothers, they start: What's going to happen to my kid?

COOPER (voice-over): Tomorrow, it's likely Habu's (ph) bed will get filled. In Niger, in this terrible time, there's always another child fighting to stay alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Things change here so quickly. Just a few hours after we finished shooting that piece you just saw, little Aminu (ph), who seemed to be doing better, little Aminu (ph) died. His body simply gave up. He was just 4 years old.

Ever since we met Aminu (ph), we really haven't been able to get him or the other children out of our minds. You know, we never saw Aminu (ph) smile. We never even heard him talk. His mother tells us that Aminu (ph) was good boy, a kind, gentle boy, and that's how she will remember him.

We wanted to know more about him, Aminu's (ph) family and about their lives. To find out, we decided to go to their village. It's a tiny place called Raca (ph). And earlier this week, we set out to find it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER (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 Aminu (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, Aminu'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 Aminu (ph) didn't make it, but she's very thankful for the doctors who tried to save him.

"The doctors did their best for Aminu (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 Aminu (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, Aminu'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 Aminu'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 Aminu (ph), these leaves don't provide enough nutrition. And that's why they get severely malnourished.

What happened to Aminu (ph) is horrible, but it's not all that surprising here in Niger. Aminu'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.

Aminu (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 Aminu (ph) died, his bed has already been filled. Another child, another mother, another struggle to live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Another little child being treated by the group Doctors Without Borders. You know, there are so many relief groups who are here trying to do work. If you would like to find out how you can help and find out more about who is working here, you can log onto our Web site, cnn.com/360, and click on the "how to help" link.

Coming up next, my reporter's notebook, some personal reflections on the tragedy in Niger. Also ahead tonight, the nomads of Niger. They live off their cattle. But what happens when their cattle are dead?

Also ahead tonight, a very up close look at doctors working to save lives here in Niger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Life of women in Niger is extraordinarily difficult. These women are pounding millet to make a meal. But 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.

What would Africa be without its women? There are mothers here lined up waiting for the morning meal at Doctors Without Borders. There are so many doctors here trying to save lives. CNN's Jeff Koinange found some Moroccan doctors, who were sent here by the king of Morocco after he saw pictures of starving children in Niger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (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 Morocco 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. Moudene and his team tell me they plan to be here on the ground for as long as it takes -- Anderson.

COOPER: There are so many people here doing heroic work in Niger. You wonder how they are coping with it. I mean, day after day, they are seeing children die.

KOINANGE: It must be incredibly stressful, but like one of the doctors was telling me at that camp yesterday, this is a calling. You either do it or you can't.

COOPER: All right. Jeff, thanks very much.

Coming up next, you're going to meet a young American woman who is working to help the nomads of Niger, and their children, who are very much at risk right now.

Also ahead tonight, my reporter's notebook, a very personal account of what it's like being in Niger in these terrible, terrible times.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: This family is cooking up beans for their daily meal. There is really not much variety to the food here. There are not that many options. It's the same thing day after day. Even when there is not a drought and when there's not been a crop failure, families eat maybe two meals a day. Btu right now, with a food shortage, they are lucky if they get one.

Welcome back to this special edition of 360, "Starving in Plain Sight."

Niger is a pretty inhospitable place to live. Two-thirds of the country is desert; the other one-third is semi-desert. But for centuries, even in the most inhospitable of places, the nomads of Niger have been able to survive.

But now, they are in trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice over): In the shade of a thorny tree, a group of Nigerien 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.

(on camera): 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 (voice-over): 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 (on camera): They don't have anything for tomorrow.

REHM: No.

COOPER (voice-over): 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.

(on camera): 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 (voice-over): Margie has also set up a voucher program to encourage nomadic women to plant crops.

(on camera): So you give out these vouchers?

REHM: Yes.

COOPER (voice-over): 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 (on camera): So you're giving them an incentive to plant now?

REHM: Right. Right.

COOPER (voice-over): 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: Coming up next on this special edition of 360, my reporter's notebook, a very personal account of what's happening in Niger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The statistics are shocking. Forty-seven years old, the average life expectancy of a woman in Niger.

We wanted to show you a different view of what is happening here in Niger, a view in still pictures, and a very personal account in my reporter's notebook.

(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: Those images taken by photographer Radika Chalasani (ph).

If you want to find out more about what's happening in Niger, or how you can help, you can log on to our Web site, cnn.com/360, and click on the "how to help" link.

Remember, there are 3.5 million at risk of starvation right now in Niger, according to relief officials; 800,000 of them are children, and thousands have already died. You've seen it tonight for yourself.

Thanks very much for watching this special edition of 360, "Starving in Plain Sight, the Food Crisis in Niger."

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