Southern Africa seeks help for hunger, AIDS
Date: 04-Oct-02
Country: ANGOLA
Author: Manoah Esipisu
"We cannot do everything with internal resources," Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said, opening a two-day summit of leaders from the region suffering its worst food crisis in a decade.
"We will have to work very hard to tackle AIDS, because it is a constant threat to all our efforts to develop the region. We also have to enhance our efforts to get food for those hungry amongst us," dos Santos said.
Ministers from the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Angola said they appreciated food aid donated so far, but called on donors to accelerate relief. The spread of AIDS has compounded the misery in a region with one of the highest infection rates in the world.
The United Nations estimates 14.4 million people from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland are facing severe food shortages, but a refusal or reluctance to accept genetically-modified (GM) food aid by some countries has led to lengthy delays in shipping supplies.
Zambia has refused GM food aid, while Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique say they will only accept milled GM food relief.
"We hope we can get to resolve the question so that all our hungry people are fed," said Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who wants non-GM commercial food imports to plug the food gap for nearly three million Zambians in need of aid.
The United States, which supplies the bulk of food aid to the region and is a major GM-food producer, has criticised Zambia for rejecting GM food, saying it posed no health risks.
BAD POLICIES DON'T HELP
SADC said foreign donors had pledged $183 million in aid so far to the six countries, well short of the $611 million appeal by the United Nations for food and agricultural assistance.
"We urge the international community for all the assistance they can muster to deal with the food shortages," said President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, where 3.3 million people need aid. While drought is blamed for the food crisis, bad government policies have made it worse in some countries, aid agencies say.
Malawi sacked a government minister in August who was linked to corruption over the sale of tonnes of maize from the starving country's grain reserve. In Zimbabwe, where nearly seven million people are facing famine, President Robert Mugabe's drive to seize white-owned commercial farms for black resettlement has disrupted farm output in the former breadbasket of the region.
SADC leaders also called for urgent debt relief and fairer trade with rich Western nations.
African countries have long demanded that wealthy nations scrap billions of dollars in subsidies to Western farmers, which developing countries say restrict access for their products.
