UN appeals for 430bn/- relief food
DAILY NEWS Reporter
Daily News; Tuesday,April 11, 2006 @02:23
THE United Nations has launched an appeal for 426 million US dollars (about 430bn/-) to assist more than eight million people hit by drought across East Africa.
UN Emergency Relief (UNER) Coordinator Jan Egeland said at the launch of the appeal in Kenya last Friday that “nowhere else on earth is so much at stake as in Africa”, adding that up to 15 million people could be in need of relief food.
The drought has hit Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia hardest, but also Djibouti, Eritrea, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania have been adversely affected as livestock are being decimated, in some areas people are dying, especially children.
Since late 2005, East Africans have been facing hunger and hardship due to drought that one aid agency, Oxfam, said it would take 15 years to completely recover.
“If all of Scandinavia faced collective starvation, the world would really respond. If all of northern Iraq was facing massive starvation, I think the world would really respond and if Kosovo and Bosnia again faced starvation, the world would really respond,” Mr Egeland said.
He said people are not dying yet in large numbers because of hunger itself, they are dying of associated diseases and malnutrition, stressing that officials warn that recent rain was too little to alleviate the suffering.
“Malnourished children die now in big numbers, probably in tens of thousands across the Horn of Africa,” he added when asked how many lives had been lost in the drought.
Of the 426 million US dollars (about 430bn/-) sought, Egeland said the bulk — 327 million US dollars (about 335bn/-) was for Somalia, a nation run by warlords for the last 15 years.
“Angry and hungry men with Kalashnikovs in search of food somewhere will lead to more conflict and a collapse of the whole project of establishing a viable state.”