["Silence, people are dying..." The Damergou famine, an examination of the facts].

This study illustrates the importance of rapid and rigorous nutritional surveys to evaluate precarious nutritional situations in the context of media uproar. It was performed in July 1993 in the Damergou district of Tanout in the Zinder department of Niger. In October 1992, the early warning system (SAP for Service d'alerte précoce) in the department reported and evaluated the food production deficit in the district. A food aid strategy was implemented according to these findings, and food was distributed from May. During June, 1993, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) used a tabloid press report to dramatise the situation, and declare that 75% of the children were malnourished, and that there were 56,000 people starving and unable to move to look for food. An international aid spiral of bidding and outbidding followed, based on simple presumption, probably justified, but not verified. The first surveys sent from the headquarters were unable to make any reliable evaluations or pertinent recommendations. The departmental health office then performed a rapid anthropometric nutritional survey (RANS) using a representative sample of the population. The survey was a cluster survey involving 29 villages and including 1,088 children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years old and their mothers. The 29 villages account for 10% of the population of the district. The findings were as follows: 2.8% of the families had emigrated since the harvest. The average price of a tiya (approximately 2.5 kg) of millet was 183 FCFA (French African Francs), the normal price at this time of year. The reserve of animal stock was 8.6 heads per family, inconsistent with massive destocking.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)