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From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #1 (May 2003), page 27 Don't lose sight of Africa's food crisis -- WFP As the international community gears up to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq, it should not divert its attention from the larger crisis affecting Africa, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris told the UN Security Council in April. The WFP's recently launched humanitarian operation in Iraq will cost an estimated $1.3 bn over six months -- the agency's single largest humanitarian operation ever -- targeting many of the country's 27 million people. Meanwhile, nearly 40 million Africans are struggling against starvation due a combination of recurring drought, war, failed economic policies and the growing impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural production. For Africa, the WFP needs $1.8 bn this year, an amount equal to the agency's entire project budget last year. So far, it is $1 bn short. "How is it that we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world?" Mr. Morris asked. "As much as I don't like it, I cannot escape the thought that we have a double standard." The response so far has been limited. In Southern Africa, gripped by a prolonged drought and an AIDS epidemic that is killing off the most productive people, more than 620,000 tonnes of food have been distributed to 10 million people. However, in Zimbabwe, 4.7 million people -- nearly half the country's population -- need food aid. In Angola, where 1.8 million people require assistance, much of the country is littered with landmines, making movement difficult and cultivation unsafe. In the Horn of Africa, 11 million Ethiopians require humanitarian relief and in neighbouring Eritrea 1.4 million people -- two out of every three people -- are short of food. There have been pledges totalling 70 per cent of requirements in Ethiopia, noted Mr. Morris. But, "in Eritrea, the funding situation is grim." Food security is also deteriorating in the Western Sahel, the WFP notes. In Mauritania, Cape Verde, Gambia, Senegal and Mali, where 500,000 people are suffering from the effects of severe drought, emergency operations have raised only 40 per cent of their cash requirements. Elsewhere in West Africa, conflicts in Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire have disrupted agricultural production and produced large numbers of displaced people, both in those countries and in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone. The WFP reports that emergency operations to feed displaced people in these four countries are still 40 per cent short of their funding needs. Shortages of funds for other food emergencies around the world,
such as Afghanistan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
seem to further darken the outlook for Africa, said Mr. Morris.
"Commitments to humanitarian aid are political choices.
We must never again witness a famine of the proportions seen
in Ethiopia in 1984/85," when about 1 million people died. This article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
"Africa Recovery, United Nations". Africa Recovery Tel: (212) 963-6857
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