EMBARGOED TO THE MEDIA UNTIL TUESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2003, 1100 HRS NEW YORK TIME

Great Lakes Region and Central Africa

CONSOLIDATED APPEAL

SUMMARY

Displacement, drought, disease

While prospects for peace in the Great Lakes region are promising, the region's 127 million people are struggling to cope with raging conflicts, repeated and continued displacement, drought and disease, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

People are not feeling political gains translated into improvements in their daily lives.

The long-running crisis in the Great Lakes region has resulted in a huge number of deaths, great suffering and hardship, severe devastation, major population displacement, widespread criminality and arbitrary violence.

The region is home to some 5 million of the world's 25 million internally displaced persons. Most live in camps, which are congested, unhygienic and lack basic services. Armed attacks on these camps are frequent.

Children are primary victims in the present situation. Thousands in the region have been forcefully recruited, abducted, and turned into killers. Many armies are predominantly comprised of children.

Women and girls are particularly vulnerable in a region where simple daily chores of food preparation or gardening can imperil their lives, and expose them risk of sexual violence. Rape increasingly is used as a weapon of war, to torture and subjugate women and tear apart families.

All people in the region suffer the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is thought to have one of the highest prevalence rates in Africa. In Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, there are more than 4 million persons living with HIV AIDS and 3,120,000 AIDS orphans. Transmission increases dramatically in conflict situations.

Food insecurity, ever a problem, is exacerbated by the continued conflict, frequent displacement and denied access.

Chronic poverty and misery now characterize daily life for populations increasingly immune to horror. Thousands are being forced into high-risk occupations, as 'voluntary' conscripts, prostitutes or slave labourers.

Human rights abuses are almost routine. Sexual violence, abduction, indiscriminate attacks and murder, are everyday events.

Aid, protection, peace

The Strategy designed by humanitarian actors in the region for 2004 will place particular focus on:

• Reaching IDPs; accessing and assisting IDPs currently not assisted and expanding the scope of available aid
• Protection of children; identifying and bringing to light violence committed against children, preventing it whenever and wherever possible
• Preventing sexual violence; caring for victims and advocating to bring perpetrators to account
• Peace and demobilization; integrating humanitarian principles in all aspects of conflict resolution, demobilization, disarmament and reintegration

Agencies and their partners will continue to develop, enhance and promote complementarity among regional stakeholders. Although not all stakeholders have included projects in the Appeal, all have resolved to work together to meet needs in a coordinated and principled manner.

Request

The Great Lakes Regional Appeal is for US$ 121,295,549.

Funding Requirements in 2004
(US$)