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TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BOUREIMA HAMA
(FILES) A file photo taken on June 1, 2010 shows a woman picking up grains of maize fallen from bags of cereal at a grain market in the northern Nigerian town of Maiadua on the border with Niger. Only five years after a severe food shortage north-central Africa is again fearing the worst before the September harvest, with 10 million people threatened in this arid region known as the Sahel. In Niger alone, the country hardest hit, more than seven million residents — nearly half the population — are in need of food, and both Niger and neighboring Chad have declared states of emergency. AFP PHOTO / AMINU ABUBAKAR