Southern Africa faces crisis

2005-09-08 10:15

Alexandria Zavis

Johannesburg - Wealthy nations are failing to heed the lessons of Niger's food crisis, with up to 10 million people in Southern Africa facing severe shortages brought on by drought and HIV/Aids, a British-based aid group warned on Thursday.

Without urgent help, 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 will not have enough food over the next six months, Oxfam said in a statement.

Impending crisis

The United Nations and aid groups issued similar warnings about Niger and its neighbours in West Africa, where crops were ravaged by drought and locusts, but the world did not respond until the situation had reached crisis point, Oxfam said.

"People died as a direct result," said Neil Townsend, the group's humanitarian co-ordinator for Southern Africa. "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."

The situation in Southern Africa has not yet reached famine proportions, UN officials say. But the region is caught in a deepening poverty cycle.

Funding shortfalls

Last month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said funding shortfalls of $187m meant that only a fraction of those needing food aid in countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe would receive it. WFP said Malawi was one of the hardest hit countries in the region.

"People in the region are used to coping when rains fail, but are increasingly unable to do so because of the HIV/Aids epidemic and other economic factors," Oxfam said in its statement.

The situation is considered so serious that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month wrote to 27 heads of state, the European Commission and African Development Bank to ask for urgent funding to "avert a catastrophe".

A number responded, but more funding is needed, Oxfam said.

The group also urged world leaders to create a $1bn UN emergency reserve fund, so help is immediately available when countries need it. The proposal is on the agenda for a UN summit starting in New York on September 14.

"Rich countries spend $1bn every day on supporting their farmers," Townsend said in the statement. "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."

- AP