From Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #4, December 2001, page 14

UN aid appeal: don't forget Africa

Most of the world's humanitarian emergencies are in Africa

The crisis in Afghanistan, with its huge numbers of refugees and hungry people, has captured the attention of the international media and the major donor powers and agencies. With about 17 million Afghans believed to be affected by either war or drought, the scale of that humanitarian tragedy clearly is enormous. This was reflected in the launch of the UN's "consolidated inter-agency appeals" on 26 November, in which the emergency aid requirements of all the different UN agencies, for all countries in the world, were presented to donors for the coming year. Based on estimates that emergency food, medical supplies and other assistance should be delivered to some 7.5 million Afghans in greatest need, the amount of the appeal for that country was the highest by far, at $657.2 mn.

However, during the launch in New York and the following day in seven other cities in major donor countries, UN officials sounded a common theme: do not let the preoccupation with Afghanistan lead to neglect of other pressing humanitarian crises. "I urge you to forget none of them," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, noting that the 2002 consolidated appeals cover 17 countries and regions in addition to Afghanistan (see table, below).

Ms. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the UN Population Fund, concurred: "Let us not stop at Afghanistan, because there are many more countries, especially in Africa, that need our urgent help. In fact, more than two-thirds of the countries covered in today's appeals are in Africa."

Photo: ©UNHCR /
R. Chalasani

Mr. Jostein Leiro, representing the Norwegian mission to the UN, reflected some donor recognition of the problem. "Today, the focus of the international community is directed towards Afghanistan, while other humanitarian crises attract less attention," he observed. "We must not forget the continuing human sufferings in Africa and elsewhere."

To what extent such calls will be heeded is uncertain. As of 6 November 2001, largely before the escalation of the Afghanistan crisis, relief agencies active in Africa received less than half the $1.6 bn they had requested for the year. This ranged from a high of 77 per cent in Tanzania (mainly for refugees from Burundi) to lows of 20.1 per cent in Somalia and 26.3 per cent in the Congo Republic.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a report released on 4 December to mark the 50th anniversary of its establishment, also noted a "disparity" in donor assistance to the emergency needs of refugees and internally displaced people. In 1999, UNHCR reported, the agency was able to obtain 90 per cent of the funds it needed for the former Yugoslavia, but just 60 per cent for countries such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The donor response "varies according to the strategic importance governments place on particular operations and crises."

In the DRC today, some 16 million people -- a third of the entire population -- are facing critical food needs, Mr. Atoki Ileka, the Congolese representative, told the consolidated appeals meeting in New York. However, since many of them cannot be effectively reached, the UN appeal for $194.1 mn covers the needs of just 2.4 million Congolese. Because of the civil war in that country, Mr. Ileka reported, practically the entire health system has been destroyed. "Everything needs to be rebuilt."

Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Somalia (see Watch page), Sudan and other African countries also have very high needs, many of them because of recent or on-going wars. Altogether, the UN agencies estimate, Africa's emergency needs in 2002 will total nearly $1.2 bn, for about 14.6 million people.

UN humanitarian aid appeals, 2002
Country/region	Beneficiaries	Amount ($ mn)
Afghanistan	7,500,000	657.2
Korea, Dem. People's Rep	6,500,000	258.1
Southeastern Europe	2,000,000	236.7
Angola	2,500,000	232.8
Sudan	3,000,000	194.5
Dem. Rep of Congo	2,400,000	194.1
Eritrea	1,363,463	120.5
Burundi	1,000,000	107.9
Sierra Leone	1,357,090	88.6
Somalia	750,000	83.7
Tajikistan	1,369,000	76.6
Uganda	717,532	68.1
Guinea	851,000	58.5
Indonesia	250,000	40.8
North Caucasus (Russia)	750,000	31.9
Liberia	655,000	17.2
Great Lakes Region	*	13.1
West Africa	*	5.9
Total	32,963,085	2,486.1
* Number of beneficiaries included in specific country appeal. Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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