OUAGADOUGOU, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Burkina Faso has offered 5, 000 tons of cereals to Niger to help fight famine, which is threatening nearly half of its 11 million population, according to the government.

The humanitarian aid is a token of friendly relations and good neighborhood between the two African countries and is part of efforts to save the Sahalian children and women being affected by hunger, a cabinet report said on Thursday.

Niger also donated food and other kinds of relief worth 50 million FCFA to help victims of floods in Burkina Faso in September 2009.

Food shortages are currently threatening other countries of the Sahalian strip, including Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali, the UN food agency FAO said in a recent report, calling for international aid to the African countries.

Burkina Faso began to sell cereals at subsidized prices in March in the northern part of the country which was the most affected with the famine.

The World Food Program has opened centers in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso to distribute free kits of rice, sugar and oil to the most vulnerable households.