UN: 13 Million Africans Facing Famine

by Thalif Deen

"I call on the international community and the countries concerned to join hands with the United Nations in a partnership to avert another human tragedy on the African continent," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council.

A "severe food crisis" is developing in a region already struggling to overcome the legacy of conflict and the debilitating effects of HIV/AIDS, said Annan. "There is still an opportunity to avert famine and to save lives, but this window is closing rapidly," he warned delegates.

Annan appealed to Western donors for $611 million for immediate food and other life-sustaining support. This assistance would meet urgent and non-urgent needs in the six affected countries over the next year.

Kenzo Oshima, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that a team visiting the region last month was struck by the scale of the challenge that confronted the United Nations.

"We can avert a famine if we act now. We cannot wait until we see the horrific images that are all too familiar from previous famines," he said.

But African diplomats remained skeptical that donor nations would respond to the appeal.

At a panel discussion yesterday on "Challenges for Humanitarian Assistance," several delegates complained that past calls for assistance have fallen mostly on deaf ears.

Angola's Ambassador Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins said his country has been battling an emergency humanitarian situation affecting more than five million people.

Although the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched an appeal to fund 130 projects in 13 sectors, he said, it had received only 34 percent of the amount requested -- "which meant that hundreds of thousands of Angolans in desperate need of attention would not receive it."

"Financial support should not only be given based on the duration of the crisis, but also on the dimension, impact and assistance needed," he added.

Martins said that long conflicts tend to be forgotten due to donor fatigue, but he appealed to the donor community to attend "with equal vigor to the forgotten crises in the world, particularly in Africa."

Sudanese Ambassador Omar Bashir Mohamed Manis said that while the annual "Consolidated Appeal" from UN agencies had proven effective, its deterioration over the last few years worried Africans.

Last month the UN said it was unable to meet the massive humanitarian needs of five other crisis-stricken countries -- Angola, Sudan, Guinea, Burundi and North Korea -- because of a shortage of funds.

This year's Consolidated Appeal, which is the joint request for aid made by all UN agencies working in the humanitarian field, is estimated at $3.6 billion.

The Appeal agencies include the High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program, and the UN Population Fund.

Only $1.4 billion has been received so far, leaving a shortfall of $2.2 billion, said Mark Bowden of the OCHA.

"This year, there is concern over a major shortfall in the amount of money being given to meet overall humanitarian needs," he said.

The situation was the same last year, he said, pointing out that it is "significantly worse" than five years ago.

Several factors are contributing to the shortfall, including less money going into the UN system and more moving either bilaterally or through non-governmental organizations.

More than 50 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance around the world today. Between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, the number of humanitarian crises escalated from an average of about 20-25 per year to about 65-70 annually, says the UN.

The UN established an array of mechanisms for timely and coordinated humanitarian action in response to an explosion of conflicts world-wide following the end of the Cold War more than a decade ago, Annan said.

They include appointing a UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, setting up a Central Emergency Revolving Fund and an Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the launching of annual Consolidated Appeals.

All these arrangements, he said, have been tested to the limit -- by complex emergencies stemming from ethnic conflicts and other political upheavals, and by natural disasters "that seem to grow in number and intensity every year."

"To our dismay, we have also seen attacks on refugee camps, truck convoys and relief workers; the deliberate denial of humanitarian assistance employed as an instrument of war, and the provision of humanitarian aid disguised as a surrogate for more forceful political or military action that might have addressed root causes of the conflict," Annan added.