The search for food has sent thousands flocking into Maradi, the main city in south central Niger, a vast arid country on the southern rim of the Sahara desert that has become the epicentre of the crisis.

As the UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes arrived in the country on Monday, aid agencies said nearly eight million people -- more than half the population -- were facing food shortages.

"I had to leave Chadakori, my village, where the younwa (hunger) is spreading desolation," said Balkissou, a young woman begging in Maradi's dusty streets.

Her wire-thin body lost in her dress, Balkissou said her village north of the city is "almost empty", save for those too old or too young to leave. She carried plastic bags of food scraps she had collected to send home to her six children.

For months, the city's bus station has become a magnet for refugees from across the entire central-southern region of Niger, where severe water shortages laid waste to crops last year.

"We know that this crisis is only just beginning," Holmes warned after holding crisis talks with the leaders of Niger's transitional government.

Holmes said his agency still faced a shortfall of 130 million dollars for an emergency appeal issued for Niger by the United Nations, which is seeking 200 million dollars (150 million euros).

Echoing his concerns, the UN World Food Programme announced it was doubling the number of hungry people it feeds in Niger to 2.3 million people.

"Niger has been hit extremely hard by the drought and the world has to act to prevent massive human suffering and the loss of a generation," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said.

The agency is also still seeking almost half of the 182 million dollars it needs to scale up its operations in Niger.

"We need to move quickly to provide a buffer for the people and government of Niger against the shock of a serious food crisis," said Thomas Yanga, WFP's regional director for west Africa.

Ali Galadima, a village elder, said between 300 and 500 people had fled his village of Tarna to try to find work and food in Maradi.

To finance their journey, many villagers "have sold their belongings and their clothes, but some also have come on foot", said Ali Bouzou, a driver.

The new arrivals take what little work they can get in order to survive in this city of 400,000, and where possible, send food or money home.

Many work as baggage porters, motorbike taxis, on construction sites or on the roadside, selling contraband petrol.

Young women pick up housework, while older women and children often beg in the streets, transfer agent Issa Maazou told AFP.

"I sold a lamb and some shoes to pay the transport, but I haven't been able to find work," said 46-year-old Amadou Hassane, who arrived two weeks ago from the village of Guidan-Tanko.

Ibrahim Abdou, 29, has managed to find work as an apprentice butcher. With the money he earns -- around two euros or 1,500 West African CFA francs a day -- he is buying food for the family he left behind.

Equipped with an old bucket and a rope, Nahanchi Wage has found work emptying out septic tanks, while his brother Sadou shines shoes in the street.

Regional powerhouse Nigeria, only 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, has proved an irresistable lure to many, but those who have tried their luck there recently have come back disappointed.

"We wandered about there like dogs for weeks and didn't find work," said Laouali Namaya, just back from Nigerian capital Abuja with a group of 30 of his friends.

Moussa Idi, a worker at the bus station, has seen them come and go. "They know well enough that hell awaits them in Nigeria, but it doesn't stop them going en masse."

Those who left to try their luck in Nigeria at the very beginning of the crisis, at the end of last year, were luckier, some finding the means to load trucks with cereals for their families back home.

Local customs officials were forced to drop demands for duties to be paid on the shipments according to a NGO, because delivery was "a matter of life or death".

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