World traveller here. Just returned from Niger in mid-Feb and yes it's that bad, mostly worse depending on the city. The rural areas aren't that bad aside from bandits and drug traffickers. Boko-Haram sucks too. Governments are probably the worst because of corruption that is rampant and the military, Niger specific, holds the key to getting contracts through via US funding. Fact is that the military takes a bribe and signs off on the paperwork even when projects aren't done or completed. Personally I suggest not donating to celebrity's because their money is poorly managed the projects are poorly managed and Sharks skim off the top. The amount of lives that are affected from projects such as Oprah are negligible because they fail to guide projects in order to better the culture and education of the resident country but rather continue to solidify the ignorance of the donating country (in her case the U.S.) by way of spending a large amount of money per student (wasteful when you have a million + children in need of the most basic education) which only allows for 100 students to attend a school that resembles a high class boarding school (also unnecessary because of, well, they go home and sleep on dirt floors or mats made in China which basically gives the students a false perspective on how things should be).
Look, I'm not downing the donation train CHOO CHOO, but donating to organizations that are more low key and actually help (lions club/rotary international/Kiwanis) is the better thing to do because after having worked with and for them I see how the smaller (50,000-100,000) projects are more effective in education. I taught nomads how to build homes with earthbag and the skepticism turned to gratitude within 28 days which they now are continuing the process so their clay homes don't fall apart after the monsoon (yes the Sahara/Sahel has a monsoon season).