about 2,000,000 Chadians were at risk of having a famine occur in their regions after the combined effects of 2 years of drought and pestilence had ruined their harvest yet again. On 27 and 28 May 2010, Mali and Niger faced a famine situation in their northern territories. The Kidal, Timboktu and Gao had their crops and livestock die off. Gao's historic nomad market had virtually no food stuffs or animal fodder in it. 31 May saw Chad embroiled in a fiscal controversy. A 12-metre statue of a horseman, the Rond-point de la Grande Armée, in the capital N'djamena, cost over $3,000,000. Both local critics, NGOs and overseas donor nations all wondered where the money had come from and thought it would have been better spent on buying food and irrigation equipment. June NGOs, various charities and the UN warned of heavy food shortages and food insecurity in Sudan's Blue Nile, Kassala, Janub Darfur, South Kordofan and North Kordofan departments. Dehydration was reported to have killed one person in Niger, while others in the region were at risk of water shortages on 1 June. Severe drought caused to 10,000,000 to go seriously short on as the Eastern Sahel crisis increases and local food prices surge on 3 June. Niger has 7,100,00 victims, Chad has 2,000,000 victims and other country have 900,000 victims in total. Niger, Chad, the eastern parts of Mali and northern Cameroon have also been badly affected by the failed rains and scorching heat, according to the UN World Food Programme. The WFP, which plans to assist 3,600,000 people in the coming months and said the crisis is expected to last at least until the next harvest in September 2010. The British charity Save the Children, launched an emergency appeal for Niger. Starving families were reported as either have travelled more than to reach the capital Niamey to find work and/or beg for food, while others have crossed the border in Nigeria. A Similar situation is occurring in Chad as, desperate Chadians fled into southern Libya. Sudan and Burkina Faso were in a server food insecure situation too. On 6 June 2010, growing famine in the Niger drove thousand of refugees into the Nigerian provinces of Kano and Katsina states. About 7,000,000 were facing a food shortage crisis in Niger. On 7 June the Malian Government's Early Warning System released an estimate that 258,000 people were suffering from