Oxfam today launched an appeal for drought-stricken Niger where up to 3.6 million people, including 800,000 children, are facing starvation, according to the UN.

The crisis in one of the world's poorest countries has been steadily worsening since a severe locust invasion last year was followed by inadequate rains during the sowing season.

Natasha Kafoworola Quist, Oxfam's regional director for West Africa, said today that the situation was desperate.

"Even the limited food that is available has soared in price rendering it unaffordable for most families and there is no hope of any harvest for at least three months," she said. "Families are feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them alive."

Oxfam hopes to distribute food vouchers to 130,000 malnourished people in Niger and to help 28,000 herders to buy new animals. The charity is asking for £1 million in donations from the public.

The appeal came as a cargo aircraft full of supplies left for Niger today. The aicraft, chartered by the French Reunir Association, left Marseille for Maradi, a town in the north east of the country, carrying 18 tonnes of sugar, groundnut oil and Plumpynut, a therapeutic nutrient that needs no water or cooking.

The British Government has so far contributed £2 million to the humanitarian efforts in Niger, and today Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, said that "there is now a substantial humanitarian operation underway" in the country.

"I am urging other donors to work together with the Government of Niger and humanitarian agencies to ensure that needs are met and lives are saved as quickly as possible," said Mr Benn.

The response to the growing emergency has been slow, leaving Niger without seeds and livestock and at risk of a second crop failure this October. The UN first warned of a humanitarian crisis in the landlocked, West African country last November but received almost no funding.

A subsequent appeal in for $16 million in March raised $1 million and an "Emergency flash appeal" launched on May 25 has garnered $10 million of an expected $30 million.

As international help has failed to arrive, the situation has deteriorated, leaving 150,000 people in immediate danger of starvation over the coming weeks. The delayed response has also raised the costs of providing relief.

Jan Egeland, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said yesterday that it costs around $1 (60 pence) per day per child to prevent malnutrition in Niger. Now it will cost around $80 (£45) to save each malnourished child’s life.

"We will get funding for Niger, images are coming out of children dying," Mr Egeland said yesterday. "But it is too late for those who are so severely malnourished and dying."

According to the UN's World Food Programme, even in a good year, malnutrition rates amongst young children in Niger are extremely high.

Around 82 per cent of the population rely on subsistence farming and cattle rearing while only 15 per cent of the land is suitable for arable farming. There is little irrigation, leaving most farmers at the mercy of the rains.

And the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation warned today that international locust control measures in West Africa need to be vigorously maintained, otherwise a repeat of last year's infestation could threaten Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Sudan as well as Niger.

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