In 2005 Niger, at that time the poorest country in the world, wassuffering from the worst food crisis in twenty years. For every 10,000th inhabitants, five to six children under five died each day. That was almost three times the international measure for an emergency situation. Grasshoppers and a drought in 2004 resulted in a catastrophic harvest. As the food vanished, people started starving. Humanitarian organisations pleaded for help, but nothing arrived. Instead, starvation became the norm for between three to four million people.