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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 25
July 2007 – The
top United Nations humanitarian official yesterday, highlighting the impact of
severe droughts in several southern African countries, stressed that the
situation is particularly dire in Swaziland and appealed for over $15 million to
assist that country.
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“We’re
anticipating quite serious problems of food insecurity” in the region, UN
Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said
at a press briefing in New York.
Swaziland
was hit by the worst drought in 15 years and its maize harvest of 26,000
metric tons was the poorest ever. While the country’s Government has
pledged over $20 million to respond to the situation, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
is appealing for an additional $15.6 million to address needs over the next
few months.
Contributions
to the Flash Appeal launched today, which aims “to raise funds to prevent
a crisis,” will be put towards food and agricultural assistance, health
and nutrition and water and sanitation needs, Mr. Holmes said. Looking
forward, he added that the funds will also be put towards early recovery to
“protect people’s livelihoods over the difficult period to come.”
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As in
other countries in the region, the situation created by the food shortage in
Swaziland is exacerbated by the high number of people – 220,000 or 20 per cent
of the population – living with HIV/AIDS.
Nearly
$4 million of the Flash Appeal funds will provide immediate food assistance to
the most vulnerable groups, including children under the age of five, orphans,
vulnerable children, pregnant and lactating mothers and those affected by
HIV/AIDS.
Mr.
Holmes, who also serves as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
hoped that donors will respond generously to the Flash Appeal.
OCHA
will shortly be launching a similar appeal for Lesotho, as the small country
declared a food emergency earlier this month after suffering the worst drought
in three decades and a 40 per cent dip in the maize harvest, a staple crop.
Nearly 400,000 people – or one fifth of the population – will be in need of
emergency food aid as a result.
Elsewhere
in the region, Mr. Holmes noted that Zimbabwe’s cereals harvest plummeted 44
per cent since last year, resulting in one third of the population requiring
some form of food assistance by early next year.
In spite
of the Government’s imports of maize, wheat and rice, he said the country will
still face a gap of approximately 350,000 tons of cereals which will mainly be
met by the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
He also
highlighted the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which
he characterized as a “long-running humanitarian crisis” due to food
insecurity, limited basic services and problems brought about by conflict,
communicable diseases and natural disasters.
Of
particular concern is the situation in the country’s volatile east, where some
700,000 people have been displaced by recent instability. If large-scale
fighting breaks out in the area, “there is a real fear of very severe
humanitarian consequences [for] the civilian population caught in the middle of
that fighting,” Mr. Holmes said.
Regarding
the occupied Palestinian territory, OCHA still faces problems regarding
humanitarian access, despite some success in recent weeks.
Mr.
Holmes pointed out that 80 per cent of the companies in Gaza have closed.
“This means that the livelihoods of the population are disappearing and,
therefore, the likelihood is, if this does not change in the next few weeks and
months, that the population of Gaza – one and a half million – will be
dependent on humanitarian aid,” he said.
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