Programme Number: 029
Week of: 6th January 2005
Recording Date: Thursday, 6th January 2005
Topical Issue(s): " THE INDIAN OCEAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DISASTER"

Issues:

"How is Africa affected?
How are victims in Somalia's Puntland region being helped?
How might the generosity of the world be bad or good for Africa?
What are Africans and African governments contributing in response?

NARRATOR:
Hello and welcome to United Nations Radio from New York.

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NARRATOR:
This is, UN and Africa. And I'm, Ben Dotsei Malor.

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NARRATOR:
"An unprecedented global catastrophe requiring an unprecedented global response …" that's how the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is describing the powerful under-sea earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the tsunami that claimed some 150,000 lives and destroyed many communities. But what about the African victims of this disaster, in Tanzania, Kenya. in the Indian Ocean, in Somalia?

CLIP-1: "The tsunami has affected some of the most remote areas of poonton? We've been trying to provide food assistance and it has not been easy exactly because of lack of infrastructure. Some of these people lost their homes others simply just lost their livelihoods, lost their boats, lost personal belongings that were washed away during the tsunami."

NARRATOR:
And, could the unprecedented generosity of the world for the tsunami victims be very bad news for Africa as a whole in the long-term?

CLIP-2: It hurts as much to be wounded in the Congo as in Kosovo; it hurts as much to be displaced in Sudan as in Sri Lanka; it is as terrible to see a child dying from diarrhea in Banda Aceh as it is to see your child dying from diarrhea in Guinea.

NARRATOR:
Plus, African nations may be among the poorest in the world but how are African governments contributing to show compassion and generosity at this time.

Stay with, UN and Africa.

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DARFUR, SUDAN

NARRATOR:
The total death toll has gone past 140,000, since the world woke up about two weeks ago to a terrible natural disaster that hit millions of people across a dozen countries, in-and-around the Indian Ocean. An earthquake in the Indian Ocean generated massive waves or tsunamis, which then hit many communities, especially in the Indonesia province of Sumatra, and in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and The Maldives. Thousands of people are still missing and the World Health Organisation says some 5 million people have been displaced and affected as result. The damage to lives, to communities, livelihoods is running into billions of dollars.

Though the majority of the victims of this tragedy are in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, African countries have also been affected.
The authorities in the Somali region of Puntland - which geographically straddles the extreme end of the horn of Africa - have recorded 298 tsunami-related deaths - the fifth highest number of tsunami deaths worldwide.
Tanzania, The Seychelles and Kenya have also reported people dying as a result of the tsunami.

Here's how UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan is describing the tragedy.

CUT SG
" This is an unprecedented, global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented, global response. Over the past few days, it has registered deeply in the consciousness and conscience of the world, as we seek to grasp the speed, the force and magnitude with which it happened. But we must also remain committed for the longer term. We know that the impact will be felt for a long time to come."

NARRATOR:
The international community - led by the United Nations - has responded generously to appeals for funds to help the victims and to rebuild the affected areas. More than 2 billion US dollars have been pledged by various countries so far. But how does this unprecedented global generosity affect long-standing relief needs in Africa? That's coming up in a moment.

But first Somalia, where the region of Puntland along the Indian Ocean coastline, appears to have taken the brunt of the tsunami's attack on Africa. Apart from the 298 reported deaths, more than 30,000 people are believed to have been badly affected. The United Nation's World Food Programme has been working to reach the victims in Puntland. On the line to Nairobi, I asked WFP spokesperson Laura Melo for the current assessment of the damage and destruction caused by the tsunami in Somalia.

INTERVIEW WITH LAURA MELO

"We have teams on the ground, they have been moving from town to town to check exactly what the damage has been, what the needs may be and they are already providing assistance. The tsunami has affected some of the most remote areas of Puntland? The coast is quite a remote area of very difficult access and this has been a major problem. We've been trying to provide food assistance and it has not been easy exactly because of lack of infrastructure which was already a problem before the tsunami but now it's even worst obviously. Some of these people lost their homes others simply just lost their livelihoods because they were mainly fishermen who lost their equipment, lost their boats, lost personal belongings that were washed away during the tsunami. So the estimation is that about 30,000 people will need food aid for the next 6 months and WFP is appealing for $2.5 million to provide this kind of assistance.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE RAISED THE SUBJECT OF A LOT OF ATTENTION BEING FOCUSED ON VICTIMS IN SOUTH ASIA. I READ REPORTS THAT SOMALI VICTIMS ARE BEING FORGOTTEN BY THE WORLD. IS THAT THE FEELING WITH THE WFP?

Well, we've been doing our best all week-end to bring attention to Somalia and to raise to the media and to the public opinion in general the issue of the situation in Somalia and certainly, what is happening in Somalia is extremely serious to those who are affected. However, we also have to put things in context because the scale of destruction, the scale of the loss of life that we are seeing in Asia is far from what we're seeing in Somalia. It is really of another dimension. This does not mean however that those who have been affected in Somalia do not need assistance, certainly they do and certainly and certainly we are working in providing this assistance. We put together an appeal for all the countries affected by the tsunami and in this appeal, Somalia is featured as well. So Somalia comes along the other countries that have been affected by the tsunami and our appeal for Somalia is coming together with the appeal for all the other countries.

YOU'VE SENT SOME UN COLLEAGUES, WFP COLLEAGUES TO THESE AFFECTED AREAS, PARTICULARLY IN SOMALIA, WHAT KIND OF STORIES ARE THEY RELAYING BACK TO YOU?

What they are telling us is that in fact, the level of destruction that they've been witnessing varies a lot from area to area. Certainly harpoon which is island/peninsula, on the northern part of Puntland, on the northern coast of Puntland seems to be the area where the structural damage has been greater and there they're telling us that there's almost total devastation of the houses, the existing houses. They also told us that everybody fled to the mountains around harpoon and they're there without shelter, without food, without water, without medicine and that's why our immediate response was to send food aid to harpoon. But we faced a very serious problem, our trucks started moving and when we reached the point called fuar, which is about 60 to 70 kilometers away from harpoon, our trucks could not proceed because the roads that were meant to be used have been destroyed, have been washed away by the waters. So our trucks have been stuck. We had then to look for 4-wheel drive trucks. We found 2 small ones and these 2 trucks have been slowly shuttling the food from fuar all the way to harpoon. And let me tell you, 60 or 70 kilometers takes about, one way, 7 to 8 hours so it shows you, it illustrates how bad the conditions are. Access is a major problem.

NARRATOR:
That was spokeswoman for the United Nations World Food Programme in Africa, Laura Melo speaking from Nairobi.

SITUATION IN OTHER TSUNAMI-AFFECTED COUNTRIES

NARRATOR:
In other African-Indian ocean countries affected by the tsunami, Tanzania has reported ten people dead. The Seychelles and Kenya each reported a death toll of one as a result of the tsunami.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, in the Seychelles alone, the tsunami caused substantial damage to infrastructure - roads, bridges, the port, the electricity network, water and sewage systems, as well as schools and houses. UNDP is appealing for 5.3 million US dollars to help conduct a full assessment of needs and restore basic infrastructure in the Seychelles.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME

CONCERNS OVER AID BEING DIVERTED AWAY FROM AFRICA

NARRATOR:
Even as the pledges of millions of dollars continue to be made for victims of the tsunami, concern is beginning to rise that long-standing aid needs in Africa in particular could become completely neglected by donors. Among all the continents of the world, Africa is the only one where people have grown poorer over the past 20 years.

The UN Emergency Humanitarian Coordinator Jan Egeland - who has been playing a leading role in rallying world attention not just to the tsunami disaster but to other world disasters' has called for Africa's needs not to be neglected.

OCHA'S JAN EGELAND ADDS HELP AFRICA
"If the world treats all humanitarian emergencies as equal now and take all the money for the tsunami victims out of their normally allocated purse for humanitarian relief, it would be construction for programmes in Africa. If the world does as most donors are saying that this will be additional funding, I believe I will be right in saying that this year will be different. Africa will also see more generosity."

NARRATOR:
Mr Egeland has been drawling some stark parallels between problems in Africa and those in other needy areas of the world.

OCHA'S JAN EGELAND ON KIDS EQUAL EVERYWHERE
"if this is competitive compassion, I would welcome that as long as it is an equal compassion for everybody. It hurts as much to be wounded in the Congo as in Kosovo. It hurts as much to be displaced in Sudan as in Sri Lanka. It is as terrible to see your child dying from diarrhoea in Banda Aceh as it is to see your child dying from diarrhoea in Guinea."

NARRATOR:
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator is also concerned that African countries could find it difficult to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals, the MDGS.

OCHA'S JAN EGELAND SOMALIA MDGS
"One of the tsunami affected countries, Somalia, less hit, certainly than the Asian ones and I would urge everybody not to talk about the Asian tsunami, it's an Asian-African, an Indian-Ocean tsunami, some of those countries are very poor to start with. There are a lot of problems in meeting the millennium development goals, now we can reach them better and if I'm right in my hope that we will now be more generous to all major emergencies, we will be able to reach these. One of the biggest threats to meeting the millennium development goals are the natural disasters that are on the increase and if we get better early warning systems, better prevention and preparedness, as I am sure we will have after this. And if we have enough for that as we may have in the end, these would be more resilient societies and thereby they will meet the millennium development goals."

NARRATOR:
The United Nations Emergency Relief and Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Egeland.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN NATIONS

NARRATOR:
Now, though many individual Africans - especially those living abroad - have been moved to contribute to the international relief effort, some questions have been raised about what compassion and generosity African governments have been showing in response to the tsunami disaster. The question seems to be: Can the usually poor recipient nations of world compassion and aid be expected to show compassion to other needy nations caught up in this tsunami disaster.
Well, there have been some relatively significant tsunami contributions so far:
The African Union has offered a modest $100,000; Nigeria has pledged one million dollars; President Obasanjo has also set up a committee to raise more tsunami funds in Nigeria. South Africa's is also contributing some funds.
Algeria and Libya have each pledged 2 million US dollars. Mozambique - a country devastated by floods not too long ago - has offered $100,000 and more money is expected to be raised in Africa, in the next few days.

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NARRATOR:
That's it for this edition of UN and Africa.
Thanks for listening and thanks to Producer, Derrick Mbatha, Production Assistant Beng Poblete-Enriquez, and studio engineer Julio Martinich.
I'm Ben Dotsei Malor.

We wish you a good year. Goodbye

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