Rat-hit community to get UN aid

The UN is to send 230 tons of emergency food aid to thousands of Miskito Indians facing hunger in Nicaragua.

The affected communities by the Rio Coco river, near the Honduran border, have seen their crops devoured by rats.

It is hoped the food will help 5,000 people over the next three months - but it is not clear when it will arrive.

Last week, officials in Nicaragua - one of the world's poorest countries - warned that up to 40,000 people were facing shortages because of the plague.

The authorities have declared the Waspam municipality, which is in an autonomous region that has long suffered from a lack of development and basic services, a disaster area.

The Nicaraguan government is appealing to the international community for help.

Border problem

The UN food aid will be sent to 14 of the area's 18 indigenous communities.

But the World Food Programme's Sabrina Quezada told BBC News that they faced many logistical problems in getting the food to the area.

One of the main problems is the remoteness and the lack of proper roads.

UN officials are also worried that if they send three-months worth of food to the area much of it may be eaten by the rats, which have still not been eradicated.

The UN says that while the rat problem is a recurrent one, it has been made worse because more snakes - the rats' natural predator - are being killed for food and skins.

The Nicaraguan government says this year's plague has been caused by deforestation.

A spokesman for the Nicaragua's National Disaster Prevention System (Sinapred) told BBC News that the Miskito Indians have traditionally planted some of their crops across the border, in Honduras.

But, according to Juan Rodriguez, they were prevented from doing so this year by some Honduran officials.

He says that this led some of the local farmers to clear some forest areas for their crops - the fires are said to have driven the rats toward established crops.