GENEVA, August 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Large-scale distribution of emergency rations to hungry families in Niger has begun for the first time since the United Nations called for aid late last year, the UN's World Food Program said Tuesday, August 9.

The mass handouts of free food got under way in the small village of Tolkobey, 90 km (56 miles) from the capital Niamey, in the hopes of heading off starvation, Reuters reported.

Up to now, the aid agency has distributed food via school meals or food-for-work programs.

"Now the situation is so bad that we have to resort to general food distribution," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told reporters.

Around 35 tons of commodities were being delivered to families in the village to cover a one-month period. A second round of aid is planned next month before the October harvest.

The UN food agency said it would target critical areas first in the coming months to avoid an increase in hunger among an estimated needy population of 2.5 million people in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries.

Last week, the United Nations warned that mass hunger was bearing down on millions of people in Niger and neighboring countries due to locusts and drought, and increased its emergency funding appeal five-fold to $81 million.

The agency said on Tuesday that it was still $34.4 million short of its latest fund-raising goal.

Food distribution, however, has been marred by corruption after a watchdog committee accused Monday, August 8, a northern provincial governor of diverting aid from villagers and giving it to security forces.

The committee called for Yahaya Yandaka, governor of the northern Agadez region, to be punished after they said he diverted 30 tons of Libyan food aid from its intended beneficiaries and gave it to security forces and local chiefs, Reuters reported.

"The aid is destined for the victims of the food crisis and that's it," the committee, made up of officials and civic groups, said in a statement.

It was the first time a senior government figure has been accused of misusing aid since the harvests failed, although several local chiefs in the southern Filingue region had been forced to pay back aid in May, following irregularities.

The food shortage in western Africa has triggered criticism that the international community failed to react in time to early warning signs that emerged one year ago.

International aid agency Oxfam accused Monday rich western countries of "appalling" long-term neglect of west African states like Niger, saying they are directly responsible for the current crisis there.

"If Niger had received the same levels of aid as Iraq, a much richer country, this crisis may never have happened," Natasha Kofoworola Quist, Oxfam's regional director for west Africa, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Sadly, rich countries give aid on the basis of news headlines and political priorities instead of need. It is appalling that many rich governments only remember these countries when they see children there dying of hunger on their TV screens," she said.

She added that neighboring Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso have also been forgotten by the rest of the world.

Leading humanitarian activist Bernard Kouchner, who founded the medical organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders), said last week the WFP should have acted faster.

"I say very clearly: the United Nations system didn't give us sufficient warning. Moreover, they did not react sufficiently," he told Reuters in an interview.