NIAMEY, Niger (AFP) – Niger has deployed rainmaking planes in a bid to alleviate a drought that has sparked fears of a food crisis in the desert nation, weather authorities said Thursday. “We had to do something about this drought,” said Katiellou Gaptia Lawan, head of the national meteorology institute. Niger has been parched by “many extended dry spells that are upsetting the development of crops and pastures”. The Sahel country — the world’s poorest […]