British-based aid agency Oxfam criticised rich countries on Thursday for failing to heed warnings of a Niger-like food crisis that could affect 10-million people in Southern Africa.
”Niger was forecast six months in advance, yet rich countries did almost nothing until the eleventh hour. People died as a direct result,” said Oxfam’s regional coordinator for Southern Africa Neil Townsend.
”Now there is an impending crisis in Southern Africa … If rich countries wait, once again, until TV crews arrive before giving enough money, people in Southern Africa will pay the price of their neglect,” Townsend said in a statement.
Oxfam called for United Nations member states to give $1-billion to a new emergency relief fund that is to be discussed at the UN World Summit in New York next week.
”Rich countries spend $1-billion every day on supporting their farmers. If they pledged the same amount every year to a permanent emergency fund at the UN, preventable crises like Niger and Southern Africa would not happen because money would be available as soon as a country needed it,” said Townsend.
An estimated four million people in Malawi, four million in Zimbabwe, one million in Zambia, 400 000 in Mozambique, 500 000 in Lesotho and 200 000 in Swaziland are facing hunger due to food shortages from drought and poor agricultural yields.
The hunger season is expected to peak between November and February.
Oxfam said that ”money is desperately needed now” to prevent the food crisis in Southern Africa from worsening.
The UN World Food Programme warned last week of a funding gap of $187-million to feed the hungry in Southern Africa despite a personal appeal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to world leaders to help.
In Niger, more than 2,5-million people are in need of emergency food aid in a country of 12,5-million, with 32 000 children at risk of dying, according to UN estimates.
”Unlike Niger, this crisis is about HIV/Aids as much as drought. Food is needed now, but the root causes of the crisis, HIV/Aids and poverty, must also be tackled,” said Townsend.
Southern Africa is home to the world’s highest HIV/Aids infection rates. — Sapa-AFP