the Sahel. An estimated 8,000,000 people faced famine conditions in Niger on 11 August. Senegal and Gambia sent food aid to the Niger. On 12 August, Gianluca Ferrera, deputy director for the UN's World Food Programme in the Niger, said malnutrition and crop failures were at a record levels in 2010. Food shortages are affecting 12,000,000 people and 400,000 children face starvation. Food prices rose by about 300% since the crisis began and thus hardly any one can afford to buy the remaining food. 14 August saw protests across Sénégal over concerns relating to the ruling party's poor governance in the face of recent floods, storms and power cuts across the country, along with the current heavy drought in Senegal's Sahel region. 15 August had aid workers and their organisations warn of an imminent nationwide famine in Niger. On 20 August, floods which were the worst for 80 years hit the Shale region. The U.N. warned that Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and northern Nigeria are also in the grip of the worst regional food crisis since 2006. In the savannah Kano, Nigeria, over 2,000 families were displaced by floods and in the nearby Jigawa region, an entire village was evacuated due to heavy flooding. In Mauritania, a flood damaged bridges and many homes in the mountain town of Aioun. Heavy flooding was occurring around parts of lake Chad. Most international aid agencies withdraw workers due to the regional kidnapping crisis. Niger's government spokesman Mahamane Lawali Danda told the BBC that the pullout came as a surprise since no one had told his government Niger was on the list of dangerous 'kidnapper infested' pariah states, along with Chad, Darfur and Sudan. Mauritania and Mali were not on the list of dangerous nations, despite several al-Qaeda lead kidnappings during 2009. The U.N. warned of mass starvation in Niger and Chad and Oxfam said people in the region were surviving on leaves and berries picked in the wild. 8,000,000 were said to be near starvation by both organisation. The UN estimated that up to 7,800,000 Nigeriens were affected by heavy food shortages. Cafod set up a £100,000 aid programme on 21 August. 25 August had a French aid worker kidnapped in Chad. The kidnapping of foreigners along the Chad–Darfur border became more frequent in 2009. A French NGO worker was taken and then murdered on 29 October 2009, and an unidentified Red