Africa famine ‘threat to millions’

The problem is most acute in Somalia, where tens of thousands of people have died, 3.2 million are on the brink of starvation, and refugees trying to find safety have become targets for armed gangs and bandits.

The scale of the crisis was made clear yesterday by UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, who was speaking at a fundraising conference convened by African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“The future of an entire generation hangs in the balance,” she said. “If we do not respond, the consequences will reverberate for years.

“We will be asked how we stood by and watched a generation die, how we allowed a crisis to become a catastrophe, when we could have stopped it.”

Ms Migiro said communities had already been shattered and a generation of orphans would bear the scars of hunger for the rest of their lives.

Families were also at risk from cholera, measles and other diseases which were threatening to spread throughout the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and beyond, she added.

“We must do everything to ensure that affected communities have enough clean water, medicine and hygiene supplies to stop it spreading further,” Ms Migiro said.

“This is also a protection crisis, where women face the threat of rape in overcrowded camps, where orphaned children are lost and scared, with no sense of future, where refugees are being preyed upon by armed gangs and bandits during their long walk to safety.

“It is also a crisis of livelihoods, with thousands of households having sold their assets to keep themselves alive.

“Pastoralists have lost their livestock. They will only be able to survive future environmental or economic shocks if they can rebuild their resilience.”

Ms Migiro was speaking as the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) revealed its East Africa Crisis Appeal, which is due to run until the end of the year, had already become one of its most generously supported campaigns.

The £57m raised during its first seven weeks makes it the DEC’s fifth-most supported appeal, behind fundraising drives for victims of the Asian tsunami of 2004, last year’s earthquake in Haiti and floods in Pakistan, and an earthquake which rocked parts of Asia in 2005.

DEC communications manager Brendan Paddy said the continued generosity of the UK public was in “sharp contrast” to the response of some foreign governments.

“The UN emergency appeal for Kenya is only 65 per cent funded and the appeal for Somalia just 59 per cent funded,” he added. “The DEC and many of our member agencies are seriously concerned that this lack of international funding will contribute to preventable deaths and a lack of action to protect people from future crises.”

Five tonnes of life-saving supplies, including medicines and micro-nutrients, were delivered to Somalia at the weekend by an aeroplane chartered by the international children’s organisation, UNICEF.

UNICEF UK executive director David Bull said: “We are establishing a supplies pipeline by plane, ship, and truck which will allow us and our partners to reach the most vulnerable children. By month-end we expect to have that pipeline solidly in place.

“As the clock ticks more children are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition and we are grateful to members of the UK public who have recognised that it is time to share and have been sharing.”