INTERVIEW - Massive donations needed to feed hungry Africa
Date: 17-Dec-02
Country: ITALY
Author: David Brough
Some 16 million people in southern Africa and 18 million in the Horn of the continent are facing exceptional food shortages because of a combination of drought and economic and political mismanagement, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said.
Widespread HIV/AIDS has deepened the crisis that includes the central Great Lakes region and west Africa.
WFP Deputy Executive Director Jean-Jacques Graisse told Reuters after launching a campaign to raise international awareness of the situation that an estimated $1.4 billion would be needed to tackle the current food shortages.
"We are living in a particularly difficult period right now for Africa. The number of people who are going to be in need of considerable food assistance in the coming months has reached numbers that we have not had in the past," said Graisse.
In Ethiopia alone, up to 14 million people risk starving to death unless food aid reaches them soon, he said.
"The population is in grave danger in Ethiopia right now," Graisse said in an interview after launching the Africa Hunger Alert campaign.
The campaign brings together a series of initiatives by individuals, local communities, schools and media to raise awareness about hunger in Africa.
"If we are to avert starvation in Africa, ordinary citizens have an important role to play," Graisse said. "It's critical they join the campaign and urge their governments to address the needs of the hungry now before it is too late," he said.
Graisse blamed the unprecedented number of hunger crises around the world in large part on changing weather patterns.
WFP Executive Director James Morris said in a statement: "The Africa Hunger Alert is focused on telling the story of the crisis in Africa, of encouraging the world to come together and respond and be generous."
RESISTANCE TO BIOTECH FOOD
Later, Tony Hall, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies, said delivery of U.S. genetically modified food to the hungry in Zimbabwe and Zambia was hampered by authorities' resistance to it even though millions of Americans eat GM food every day.
Zambia has banned GM food amid worries about its long-term effects on human health and fears that such grains could spread into local crops. Zimbabwe will only accept it after it has been milled, which complicates food aid deliveries because of the additional costs and a shortage of millers, he said.
WFP had to remove 17,000 tonnes of GM maize from Zambia and will have to deliver it to hungry people elsewhere, Hall said.
"We can't possibly get other (non-GM) food there in time to solve this problem," Hall told reporters.
He said Zimbabwean authorities were using food aid as a political weapon to benefit their supporters.
"They are taking food away from areas where people voted against them in the election and are giving it to people who voted for them," said Hall, who visited Zimbabwe and Malawi in October.